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THE 


BAIGEBS AND BEGDUTOES 

^ OF THK 

’ TANAHA: 

'If ^ 


^nt0iig fsfoless. . 


A TAT.E OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. 

BT / 

CHAKLES SXJMMEKFIELD, 

(a? W. ARRINGTON), 

ZaU Judge of the Rio Grande District. 

AUTBOR OF “8KBTOHKS OF THK 8 O U T H- WB B T,** 



* NEWYORK: 

ROBERT M. DB WITT, PUBLISHER, 

(LATE DE WITT & DAVENPORT), 

160 & 162 NASSAU STREET , 

‘ 



Amu'H 


I 


Untssed according' to Act of Congreu, in the year 1856, by 
ROBERT M. DE WITT, 

In tbe Clerks Office of the Diatrict Court of the Uuiied States, for the Southern IMstrict of New Yc^ 


Qxo. Russxll, k Co., Printer, 


W« H, Timson, Ste^otyper. 


G, W, Alkxjihdkr, Bindet. 




, o» 

THE SONS OF IMMORTAL GENIUS, 

“Whose political wisdom extended the luminous area of Freedom by the 
successive additions of Florida’s ever-green peninsula, of the imperial 
domain and priceless delta of Louisiana, of the world-controlling cotton- 
fields of Texas, of California’s golden valleys, and the silver mountains of 
New Mexico— and to all those who inherit the same passion for pioneer- 
ing progress, and equal love for the glory of their native land, this work 
is dedicated in humility and hope by the 


AUTHOR 


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P E E F A 0 E . 


The design of the author in the humble conception and hasty prepara- 
tion of the following work was to give explicitly an accurate picture of 
one phase in the development of South-Western life, namely, the pioneer- i 
ing or transition state, and inferentially to account for its existence in the • 
peculiar social circumstances of its actual environment. I had thought, 
at first, to present the matter in a purely narrative form, with precise 
localities, names, and dates, so as to realize a veritable history, as thrilling 
and intensely dramatic in its events as any probable romance could be. 
But a little reflection soon satisfied me that such a method of treatment 
would be unnecessarily cruel, as many of the actors in those stormy scenes 
which find a place in the sequel are still living, while the others now no 
more, have left friends and relatives who would be pained to a profound 
degree by revelations of so special a character. I was compelled, there- ( 
fore, by motives of humanity, to exhibit the facts in the shape of a tale 
or story, indulging at the same time in a few of the liberties allowed by * 
that species of composition. Nevertheless, I can truly affirm, that in no 
instance have I suffered myself to deal in exaggerations, or to interpolate 
utterly fictitious incidents. I have even omitted the historical consequence 
of “ the poisoned wedding,” not only from want of space, but in order to 
avoid too great an accumulation of deadly horrors. For as it now stands, 
the delineation will doubtless be charged with an excess of dark and 
gloomy coloring. I admit the objection, and offer in excuse the unan- 
swerable plea of fidelity to the facts. I have described society in the 
given sphere as it was, and I may add, as it always will be under similar 
circumstances. 


PREFACE. 


viii 

Every new country, when first opened to emigration, is settled by a 
strange mixture of heterogeneous elements — ^by the enterprising and the 
virtuous seeking to improve their condition, and by the vicious of differ- 
ent grades who desire to escape from the trammels or the terrors of the 
law. In such cases, a collision between the opposing interests and passions 
becomes inevitable. Theft, robbery, and fearful homicides precipitate the 
crisis ; and in the absence of all legitimate authority and regular organi- 
zation, the remedy of lynching is the natural result. That is the epoch 
of strife, turbulence, and general combat — the state of nature, which is 
always a state of war, when sanguinary crimes provoke still more san- 
guinary punishments ; and savage fury and brutal force inaugurate the 
reign of universal terror. 

It must not be supposed, however, that this transititional period is pecu- 
liar to any geographical section of the country. It has been witnessed in 
Illinois, in Wisconsin, and in Missouri, as well as in Arkansas, Texas, and 
California; and everywhere it has been the effect of the same social 
causes. In all the instances, too, the phenomenon has been equally brief, 
in duration. The evil soon runs its course. The anarchists and despera- 
* does are either exterminated or driven farther to the west ; and the beau- 
tiful spirit of order and progress emerges from the chaos of confusion and 
blood. For, not even in the petty confests of life on the frontier, any 
more than in the mightiest shock of adverse nations and races, will 
humanity or civilization ever suffer a permanent check, or lose a single 
important battle. 


.i 


* .1 V -r 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I. 

The Travellers In the Storm, 18 

♦ CHAPTER 11. 

Colonel Miles — The Midnight Alarm, 26 

CHAPTER IIL 

Major Morrow and Sol Tuttle— Captain Carlyle 88 

CHAPTER IV.' 

The Ball — The Departure, .....60 

CHAPTER V. 

Mt^or Morrow and Joanna, ...•••62 

CHAPTER VI. 

Captain Carlyle and Lucy— The Murder, . . . . | . • • • 78 

CHAPTER Vn. 

Sol Tuttle — ^The unexpected Meeting, . ..*..•• ..85 

CHAPTER Vm. 

Uncle Jack, ••••96 

CHAPTER IX. 


The Two Duels, 


107 


X 


CONTENTS 


PAOX 

CHAPTER X. 

Revenge, i • 118 

CHAPTER XI. 

Plots and Counterplots, 186 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Negro Meeting, 148 

CHAPTER Xm. 

The Narrow Escape, 154 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Battle at, the Block-House — Judge Moore, 168 

CHAPTER XV. 

Sol Tuttle and Brother Dave — The Brothers Barton and the Sisters Ewing, . . 181 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Carlyle and Curran, 194 

• 

CHAPTER XVn. 

Lucy, 209 

CHAPTER XVm. 

The Trial by Torture, 224 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Trial — An Execution, 240 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Rangers, 257 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Mary and Lucy, ••• •'• 275 


Major Morrow and Joanna, 


CHAPTER XXn. 


293 


CONTENTS. Xi 

PACK 

CHAPTER XXm. . 

The Defeat of the Lynchers, 810 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Defeat of the Robbers, 82T 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Major Morrow and Dave Tuttle, 845 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

TheJaU, . ' 862 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Last, 880 


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HANGERS OF THE TANAHA 


CHAPTER I. 

THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. 

. About the middle of the afternoon, on the second day of 
April, 1842, a couple of travellers coming from Louisiana, 
> along the old dim pathway known as “ Morrow’s Trace,” crossed 
the famous boundary of the river Sabine, into Shelby county, in 
the Republic of Texas. 

One of these, and evidently the first in natural as well as 
civil statusj was a tall, very handsome youth, richly dressed in 
dark cloth, and mounted on a powerful black horse, with a pair 
of revolvers in the holsters before his saddle. It would have 
been impossible to imagine the stranger’s real standing in life, 
from the mere survey of his person. His countenance combined 
all the shrewd intelligence usually found in the face of the law- 
yer, with the more pleasing air revealed by that of the politi- 


14 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


cian, while the live light of bravery radiant in his vivid blue 
eyes, perhaps, indicated a son of that Southern chivalry, whose 
fiery prowess rivals any that the world has yet witnessed. His 
carriage presented a happy mixture of ease, dignity, and grace, 
and the heyday of wild joy and ardent hope, those twin-lustres 
of the innocent and inexperienced heart, beamed on all his fea- 
tures, pure as the sunshine of spring in the azure of heaven 
above his bead. 

The young man’s companion, and apparently his servant, was 
a large negro of the darkest dye, and from his clothing and 
demeanor, clearly a considerable favorite of the master. As if 
for the sake of contrast in color, he rode an enormous white 
mule, of whose appearance and performances, as he gazed at it 
frequently and fondly, he seemed immeasurably vain. 

Their course meandered through the deep forest on the right 
bank of the Sabine, and it would be difficult to conceive a pic- 
ture of more profound and utter solitude, than that which met 
their eyes. Gigantic trees, like an army of ancient Titans, the 
monstrous birth of unknown centuries, towered on high ; while 
the luxuriant undergrowth of the most brilliant green, blended 
with millions of parasites, and silvered over with that grey wiz- 
zard’s hair, the waving long moss, formed a wild web of tangled 
verdure, almost impenetrable to the wings of a bird, save where 
this one poor path had been opened by the axe of the pioneer, 
or tc^mahawk of the hunter. It looked like an asylum for the 
refugees and robbers, who were said to abound in the country, 
and certainly no bandit’s heart could have wished for a more 
secure hiding-place. 

Some such fancy appeared to trouble the mind of the negro 
as he glanced around timidly, and inquired in anxious tones; 
“ Say, massa Bolling, how fur am y’ guyin’ yit ?” 

“ A dozen miles, or so, Caesar,” was the careless reply 

“Oh, Lordy ! it’s nearly night jist now I what roarin’ noise 
am that ?” cried the black, in the greatest terror. 


THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. 


15 


As he spoke, the lurid clouds, which had been gradually mus- 
tering, for the last hour, suddenly darkened the old woods, 
and a low moaning sound was heard in the southwest, like the 
distant roar of the .sea. 

“ It is the wind I” exclaimed the young master ; “ we shall 
have a hurricane, and that will be awful in such a forest ! come 
on, Caesar, and keep close behind me.” And they spurred their 
animals to the highest speed. Nevertheless, escape seemed 
impossible, so narrow was the winding trail, while the pendent 
branches, and drooping vines overhead, frequently forced them ^ 
to pause. 

In the meantime, the wilderness, previously still as the cham- 
ber of death, without so much as the murmur of a zephyr’s 
wing, now began to sigh, like some breaking heart, and all the 
pine-tops sung a melancholy song, as if whispering to each other 
the weird secrets of their impending doom. And then, all in a 
moment, quick as the coming of a thought, one wide, wild, 
wavering flash, the big billow from an ocean of electric fire, dashed 
away the darkness, and like the conflagration of a world, illu- 
minated the earth and sky. A peal of thunder followed, as 
long, as loud, as. appalling as the simultaneous burst of ten 
thousand pieces of artillery. This was the signal for the onset 
of the storm. 

“ Oh I massa, we’ll never see Alabam’ agin I” lamented the 
negro, with looks of horror. 

“ Fear not, Caesar 1’.’ shouted the youth ; “ we will soon reach 
more open woods/’ 

But the hurricane howled more wildly than ever, and even 
hope died in the quivering heart, before that dreadful scene of 
utter desolation. Immense limbs were torn from the tallest 
trees, while the small ones lost their green leaves and golden 
flowers, as if stripped to nakedness by some human hand. The 
poor birds fled from their ruined nests, and unable to ride on 
the giddy gyrations of the whirlwind, flapped their useless wings 


16 


RANGER9 AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


and fell upon the earth. The most savage beasts, all their fero- 
cious instincts quelled by the presence of a common peril, filled 
the forest with yells of terror, or cries of mortal anguish. 

Then, all became hushed ; but the silence was more awfully 
ominous than the rolling reverberations of the thunder, or the 
deepest roar from the voice of the storm. The wild animals, 
soothed by the delusive calm, and deeming the danger already 
past, ceased their frightful clamor, and all was still 

“Now is the time, Csesar,” exclaimed the young master, “let 
us fly for our lives And they sped onwards with the velocity 
of the wind, and shortly reached a small glade, where they 
leaped from their saddles, and sought a precarious shelter under 
the boughs of a low, but sturdy oak, near the centre of this 
natural meadow. 

“ I think that we are safe, at last,” murmured the youth, with 
white lips. 

“ I guess so,” ejaculated the slave, through the chattering 
teeth. 

But at the instant, blacker darkness enveloped the earth, and 
more lurid lightning rent the 'sky. The tornado, like a drunken 
devil fresh from slumber, awakened with more frightul fury. It 
seized the soaring pine trees in the surrounding forest, twisted 
‘them together like ropes, and hurled them down in great heaps 
of ruin. Titanian trunks, that had braved the thunder of a 
thousand storms, bowed in the dust almost without resistance. 

The terrified horse and mule plunged, snorted, and broke 
away from their bridles, but only to return and sink upon their 
trembling knees, as if to implore human protection. 

Then, the very vault of heaven itself appeared to part, as if 
split asunder by the lightning of an archangel’s sword ; and the 
great rain, in roaring cataracts, rushed out of the. clouds, like 
another deluge, to drown the world. 

But again, the tempest paused ; and a ribbon of radiant 
blue sky was seen low down in the west, from which the setting 


THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. IT 

sun soon poured a flood of golden glory, with beams as divinely 
bright as if no tears had ever stained the fair face of either 
man or nature. 

“ All right, now I hurrah for Alabam’ and Massa Bolling I’^ 
shouted Csesar, with a sudden light of joy in his enormous white 
eyes, ardent in the ratio of his recent horror. 

All at once, a faint, startled cry was heard, then a wild, 
piercing shriek, and a young girl emerged from the forest, with 
pale features, and fear-frenzied looks, exclaiming, in a voice of 
sweet, yet indescribably mournful music, “ Oh ! save me, for 
the love of Christ !” 

Her snowy robes, tnoroughly saturated with the late rain, 
revealed a slender form of matchless symmetry and grace, and 
her visage, though pallid in the extreme, was beautiful as the 
picture of an angel. 

Tlie young traveller, thinking that she would faint with her 
luiiiiilcss agitation, flew to meet her, and extended his arms for 
support, when suddenly, as the last burning bolt of the thunder- 
storm, a forked arrow of amethystine flame dashed between 
them, and both sank upon the earth, with their unconscious lips 
in contact, while a final peal from heaven, louder than all the 
rest, sounded like a knell for their funeral ! 

“ Oh 1 my dear Massa Bolling I” cried the terrified slave, 
rushing to the fallen youth. But the latter had been only 
stunned, and quickly recovering, devoted himself to the resusci- 
tation of the lovely being who had been struck down by his 
side. 

She lay among the flowers on the greensward, without motion 
or any signs of life ; and yet the young man thought her far 
more beautiful than any form of animated flesh that ever had 
dawned on his gazing eyes, or glittered even in his rarest 
dreams. 

He lifted her up in his arms. He chafed her soft white hands 
and snowy temples. He pressed her bosom to his heart, as if 


18 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


he might warm that bewitching clay, by the fires which he felt 
in his owm blood. He breathed upon her pale lips ; but still 
seemingly all in vain. 

He raised a countenance of unutterable agony towards the 
pitiless arch of heaven, exclaiming, in half frantic accents, 
“ Great God I let her yet live I she is too beautiful to die I” 

At last her breast stirred gently. Like some new-born zephyr, 
an almost inaudible sigh fluttered again on her sweet rose-bud 
of a mouth. The lily-like lids and raven lashes parted, and the 
brilliant black eyes shone out with a bewildered expression,- like 
one suddenly aroused from the weird enchantment of a horrible 
dream. 

The youth uttered an ejaculation of insuppressible joy ; and 
even Caesar murmured his humble, quiet gratitude, “ Thank the 
good Lordy ; for she’s the finest gal eber I seed 

“Where am I ? Who are you V’ said the young girl, in a 
faint, frightened whisper, withdrawing herself from the invol- 
untary embrace of the traveller, with a blush of maiden 
modesty, not unmixed with many tokens of alarm. 

“ I am the stranger,” answered Bolling, in tones of unspeak- 
able kindness, “ from whom you requested protection the 
moment before we were both smitten to the earth by lightning ; 
and I now offer you any assistance which it may be in my power 
to render.” 

She gazed upon his countenance with her dark, starry eyes, 
timid and tearful, as if in doubt as to the prudence of trusting 
one that she knew not, and had never previously seen. 

“ Fear me not, fair lady,” remarked the youth, tenderly, but 
with a certain air of noble pride ; “ I am a gentleman, and as 
such would sooner behold my right hand wither than harm, 
or even insult, by word, look, or gesture, any being bearing 
the sex of my sainted mother, much less a virgin lovely and 
pure as the one now before me and who has so nearly met death 
by my side ” 


THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. 


19 


“ Miss, believe massa William Bolling,’^ interposed Caesar, in 
accents of gentle persuasion ; “ he’s of the first family in old 
Yirginny. His father’s judge in Alabam’, and all of ’em am rich 
as cream.” 

Soothed by the delicions mnsic of the master’s voice, and by 
the seeming candor of the servant’s manner, the suspicions of 
the girl rapidly gave way, but still she remained silent. 

“ May I be permitted to inquire,” said Bolling, in tones of 
the deepest sympathy, “ what unfortunate chance exposed you 
thus to the fury of the storm, in a place so far from the settle- 
ments ?” 

As he spoke, the wild notes of a bugle, long, loud, and linger- 
ing, rung on the evening air, at the distance of some half a mile 
to the left, and immediately a similar sound, as of a preconcerted 
signal, responded from the right. 

The effect on the mind of the maiden was instantaneous and 
awful as magic. At one frightful leap, she sprung back to the 
bosom of her proffered protector, and clinging there with con- 
vulsive energy, her quivering arms around his neck, she gasped, 

The robbers ! the robbers I I am lost !” 

In vain the astonished traveller sought to ascertain the causes 
of her apprehension. She still murmured, “ The robbers I the 
robbers I Save me, or I am lost 1” 

“ I will save you, or sink in death by your side,” answered the 
youth, in accents of terrible determination, as his brave blue 
eyes flashed with the lightning of battle. He instantly sprang 
into the saddle, and commanded, “ Caesar, help her up behind 
me. They must have swift horses to overtake mine, and a 
formidable force to withstand ray two revolvers I” 

The gigantic slave lifted the fairy form to her seat, as easily 
as if she had been an infant, so great was his strength ; and the 
party hurried away along the path towards Shelbyville. 

But they were destined to encounter many difficulties, which 
rendered their progress slow and toilsome j for the tempest had 


20 RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 

blown down several large trees across the trail, and in other 
localities, had filled it with tangled branches. At length, they 
emerged from the wreck left by the hurricane, which had 
expended its principal force in a circular space, of not more than 
three miles in diameter ; but the pale shadows of evening had 
deepened into the darkness of night, and although the burning 
beauty of a thousand stars glittered on high, their mild lustre 
could not penetrate the thick mantle of foliage that hung on 
the surrounding forest, almost as rayless as the gloom of a 
cavern. The young man, no longer able to perceive any trace 
of the path, dropped the reins on his horse’s neck, confiding in 
the sharper vision and peculiar instincts of the noble animal. A 
death -like silence reigned in the solemn woods, broken only by 
the occasional shrieks of some night-bird, or the savage cries of 
rage or hunger uttered by the wild beasts in their nocturnal 
forays. 

The arms of tne virgin ciaspea me waist of the traveller 
more trustfully. He could hear, in fancy, the beating of her 
heart. He felt upon his cheek her warm breath, intoxicating 
his senses like some delicious perfume. Ah, me I how many 
unimaginable consequences, for good or evil, might that myste- 
rious chance have to answer for, which thus strangely threw 
those young souls together I What glowing hopes it might 
kindle or quench 1 What hearts it might bless to beatitude, or 
break for ever I What luxuries of love, what horrors of 
hatred, what curses of crime, innumerable, all-absorbing, endless, 
might it not entail on these two, and others 1 What wonder- 
ful, yet weak and wavering beings we are I — human atoms float- 
ing at random on the great life-sea, that every wind and tide 
may toss about at will. A sudden concurrence of circumstances, 
the most unexpected, the most trivial and fortuitous — the tones 
of one voice, the glance of an eye, the birth of a babe, the 
bridal of a relative, every, scene that can be enacted from the 
infant’s cradle to the old man’s grave — the wafture of a finger, 


THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. 


21 


the flight of a feather, or the fall of a fan, may change, from 
their deepest foundations, all our settled plans, all our firmest 
purposes, as if we were truly what the ancient heathens deemed 
us, but mere dice in the iron hand of Destiny, to be played at 
the pre-appointed hour, in accordance with the evolutions of an 
unknown and irresistible law I 

But no such serious reflections troubled the imagination of 
William Bolling. He only yearned to become better acquainted 
with the history of the fair creature that fortune had committed, 
for the time, to his keeping. At last they emerged from the 
impenetrable shadows of the forest into a space more free from 
foliage, and the glimmering starlight revealed at the distance of 
a few hundred yards before them, a luminous expanse of sky, 
indicating the vicinity of a prairie. 

“ You need not have any more fear of the robbers, now,’^ 
remarked the young man, with inexpressible tenderness. 
” Where do you reside V 

“ My father lives two miles beyond Shelby ville,’^ she answered^ 
in a whisper. 

At the large block-house on the hill V’ he inquired, in the 
same kind tones. 

“ That is the one.” 

I remember having observed it, on my visit to the country, 
last fall, though I did not learn the name of the owner,” said 
Bolling. 

“ Colonel Miles,” replied the maiden, to this indirect question. 

“ And what does the colonel call his beautiful daughter ?” 

Mary.” 

“Mary I the divine name I” murmured the youth, fondly: 
“ the sweetest of all words, ever whispered by a lover, lisped by 
the lips of childhood, or sung in the notes of song I pardon my 
enthusiasm; it was the first sound I uttered when an infant— 
the name of my dear mother.” 

“ Is she living ?” she said, with a stifled sigh. 


22 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


** In heaven I” he responded, in accents of painful sadness. 

“ And mine is the same,” sobbed the young girl. 

Then, you have a still warmer claim for my sympathy and 
protection, as a sister orphan of the heart,” returned Bolling, in 
a voice of touching devotion. After a few minutes of silence, 
he added, with evident anxiety : “ I shall likely become a citizen 
of Shelby County, and I hope that we shall be friends.” 

“ I trust so,” she answered, in a whisper so faint, yet magical, 
as to make every chord in his bosom vibrate as if his heart itself 
had been thrilled with the point of a golden arrow. 

Suddenly the hoarse voice of Caesar was heard close behind 
them : “ Massa Bolling, lend me one of yer shooters ; thar’s 
sumthen corain arter us, sure I” 

“Nonsense!” exclaimed the master; “but here, take it, if 
you wish ; and he handed the slave a revolver. 

'Hardly had he done so, when the shrill blast of a bugle sounded 
ill their rear, and so unexpectedly, and with such wild, war-like 
tones, as to startle, for an instant,' even the chivalrous bravery 
of young Bolling. 

The effect on the frightened virgin was appalling. The youth 
vainly essayed to allay her terrors with suggestions, which his 
own reason failed to recognize. “ They cannot be bandits,” he 
urged ; “ for if so, they would not blow a trumpet to put us on 
our guard. They are, probably, wandering hunters, or travellers, 
who have lost their way.” 

“No, no,” she replied, in despairing accents, and quivering in 
every nerve, like a loose leaf in the whirlwind : “ that was 
Comanche Ben’s bugle ; I would know it among a hundred. 
Fly instantly, if you would save our lives I” 

“ If we perish, we will die together,” he returned ; for to his 
fevered and fiery imagination, there was a sweet drop of pleasure 
even in tha,t bitter reflection. 

At the moment, the horse pricked up his sharp ears, and gave 
a loud, hasty snort, as if he scented danger, and immediately 


THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. 


23 


afterwards, the figure of a man appeared from behind the trunk 
of an immense oak, and standing in the middle of the path, 
saluted them in tones of strange, yet sinister melody. “ Good 
evening, sir. Old Boreas, on his huge guitar of thundering 
forests, swept a grand march for the gods to-day. Did you 
happen to hear any of the rich music V’ 

“ More than enough,” answered the young man, woudering 
greatly at the poetical style of the intruder. 

The latter continued : “Do you travel by starlight from 
choice or necessity, or, perhaps, you may be a devotee of the 
divine science, astrology 

“ I never respond, with the tongue, to impertinent questions,” 
said the other, sternly ; “ will you please to get out of the way, 
and let us pass ?” 

“ What I there are two of you ? ” replied the stranger, in 
sneering accents ; “I thought as much, from the glimpse %f a 
white garment on your horse’s flank ; and so I inferred that you 
worship at the altar of the sweet Paphian divinity, rather than 
before the shrine of the wiser Muses I” 

“ Move out of the path, or by Heaven, I will pistol you like 
a dog !” cried the youth, in a terrible voice. 

“ That would only prove you to be a fool,” said the stranger, 
“ for half a dozen of my best forest rangers are in ambush, not 
ten paces before you, while as many more are stationed in the 
rear, to cut off all hopes of retreat ; and as discretion is allowed 
to be the better part of valor, you must, of necessity, exhibit your 
approval of the maxim, by surrendering unconditionally.” 

“Oh I God, we are lost I” exclaimed the maiden, in an agony 
of terror. 

“ Is that you, my Madonna, loveliest of all the Marys V' cried 
the robber, in mocking tones, as if recognizing her voice. And 
then, he immediately added ; “ I have a proposition to offer, by 
way of compromise. Sir Traveller. Give me up the girl and your 
purse, and you may go about your business.” 


24 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Hold fast now, and we will ride over him, and escape, 
whispered the young man in the ear of his shuddering companion ; 
and, applying the spurs suddenly to the sides of his horse, the 
spirited animal made a mighty leap forwards, and trampling 
down the bandit, dashed along the road with the swiftness of an 
arrow. The action was so unexpected, and the velocity so 
furious, that the other villains in ambuscade, in^vain endeavored 
to intercept their flight. Guns flashed, pistols roared, and fierce 
cries and curses rent the air, as if troops of demons were fighting 
in the darkness ; but neither the youth or maiden received any 
wound. In a minute they gained the open prairie, and were not 
pursued. 

As soon as they found themselves safe from the appalling 
peril, the young girl inquired, anxiously : “Where is Caesar?” 

“ I fear that we shall never see the faithful fellow, again,’^ 
lam^ted his master, in tones of deep emotion. “The misfor- 
tune is indeed a sad one to me. He has been my comrade, 
rather than servant, from the cradle ; and never have I seen 
cause to question either his affection or fidelity. I know well 
that, at any hour, for my sake; he would willingly have laid 
down his life, as he doubtless has just now done.” 

As if to confirm his worst apprehensions, they soon heard the 
clatter of galloping hoofs, and the white mule came up without 
its rider. 

With melancholy hearts they continued their journey to the 
home of Mary’s father, discoursing in musical whispers that 
thrilled through each other’s souls. Was this tender feeling 
love, at first sight ? Who can say ? But one thing is certain, 
it must have been so, if they were destined ever to love at all ; 
for there cannot be a pure passion worthy of the name, which 
does not come in all its force, like the lightning of heaven, at 
the flash of the eyes only, and all divine. 

Who waits for the second view, or the rigid criticism of cold, 
calculating reason, to worship the boundless beauty of stars and 


THE TRAVELLERS IN THE STORM. 


25 


rainbows, the opaline lustres on the wings of brilliant birds, the 
music of night winds among the pine-tops, or the solemn mur- 
mur of the sounding sea ? For love follows beauty, as light 
doth the sun. 


26 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANIHA. 


CHAPTER II. 

COLONEL MILES: — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 

When young Bolling and the Beauty of the Forest reached 
the residence of her father, they beheld a scene of the greatest 
confusion, which had been caused by the mysterious absence of 
the fair daughter. Half a hundred slaves, armed with flaming 
pine torches, were flying about wildly, piercing the darkness in 
all directions, shouting in startled tones, “ Mary ! Mary I oh ! 
dear young Missus I” with countless other fond, yet frightened 
exclamations, evincing the most intense grief for the supposed 
loss of their favorite. 

Their almost frantic joy at her reappearance surpassed even 
the tumultuous tokens of their recent terrors, and they all 
gathered around her with loud cries of delight, the women and 
children kissing her hands and the very hems of her garments, 
asking, at the same time, a thousand questions. “ Whar have 
you been ? Wur you out in the rain ? Did y’ git lost in the 
woods ?” While many of th^ more silent, among the sable sea 
of eager faces, sobbed and wept, as if the beautiful girl had 
been their own child. For there is no burning ardor of affec- 
tionate friendship to excel that which the black servant of. the 
South feels for a truly kind master or mistress. 

Mary, however, did not seem disposed to gratify the natural 
curiosity of the anxious negroes, by giving any account of her 
late perilous, adventures, but asked distractedly for her father. 


COLONEL MILES — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 

Upon being informed that the Colonel had been absent since 
morning, she turned to the young traveller, and remarked in 
disquieted accents, “ I must put you in the care of the slaves, 
to-night. Here, Tony, see that this stranger has every possible 
attention. I was indebted to him for my life, by his brave 
assistance in the tornado. Mr. Bolling, I wish you a pleasant 
sleep and happy dreams.” And with a smile, pale, but sweet as 
the radiance of starlight, she glided out of the room ; and the 
youth felt as if some celestial lustre had suddenly left the now 
darkened air, but the music of her soft, singing tones still rung 
in his soul ; for she possessed one of those rich, rare voices, 
whose echoes, like the bewildering cadence of a strange, wild 
tune, linger in the ear, and haunt the enraptured recesses of the 
listener’s brain, long after the words have ceased to warble on 
the speaker’s lips. 

Bolling was so absorbed in this new, nameless melody, that 
he did not notice, until after three repetitions, the obsequious 
question of the black waiter, “ Will mas’r have something to eat ?’^ 

“ Yes,” replied the traveller, abstractedly. 

“ Here, Dinah,” ordered Tony, with a look of pompous com- 
mand, “run y’ nigger, and git this gen’man’s supper, quick. 
Gin him the fust chop, do y’ hear ? And you, Sam Snowball, 
don’t stand thar turnin’ up the whites of yer eyes, like a dyin’ 
duck ; put up his boss, and stuff ’im chock full of con and fod- 
der. Stir yer stumps, like a hog on ice.” 

The traveller now directed his attention to the huge form and 
ebon face before him, but experienced little satisfaction in the 
survey. Those great eyes gleamed with an aspect of mingled 
cunning and ferocity, while the simulated, deceitful smile, on the 
coarse, animal features, reminded one of the nursery myths 
about grinning fiends and hobgoblins, and more especially of 
Congo and cannibals. 

With a low bow of ludicrous courtesy, Tony inquired, “ I arx 
yer pardon, mas’r, but, wur y’ out in the harracane to-day ?” 


28 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ YCwS,” was the brief and somewhat stern response. 

“ And where mont y’ cotch young missus 

“ I met with her by accident during the storm ; and it is 
singular how she happened to be in such a wilderness, remote 
from a human dwelling,” said the young man, hoping to extract 
a little light out of so dark a subject, for the complexion of the 
negro seemed so supremely black, that the very sight of it 
might have been supposed enough to extinguish a candle. 

But Tony eluded the force of the suggestion, replying, quite 
innocently, “ I knows nuthen' about it ; but, mas’r, did y’ see 
any robbers ?” 

“ Do you have such dangerous people in these parts ?” in- 
quired Bolling, watching earnestly the countenance of the slave. 

“Oh, Lordy ! plenty of ’em,” affirmed Tony, with an aspect 
of real, or well-feigned horror ; “ and lots of Boboiitioners, too. 
They make the darkies run off like wild hogs.” 

Aunt Dinah soon brought in a luxurious meal, and this being 
dispatched, the traveller, accompanied by his waiter, with candle 
in hand, went to the sleeping apartment, on the same floor as 
the parlor. 

Here, as Bolling was undressing, the sable gossip lingered, and 
ventured a final assault. “ Mas’r, don’t you think young missus 
Mary is a very nice gal ?” 

“ Certainly,” returned the youth, in impatient accents, but 
with a blushing face. 

“ I know of a pusson who lubs her to kill !” said Tony, with 
a mysterious air. 

The traveller suddenly felt his heart beat like the roll of a 
drum in battle, but he asked calmly, “ Does the happy lover, of 
whom you speak, succeed in his courtship with the fair girl ?” 

“ I can’t say as to that, mas’r ; but I spec as how he’ll hev 
her, any how,” remarked the black, with a strange gleam on his 
repulsive visage. “ Jemany I” he cried, as Bolling deposited his 
weapons on a stand beside the bed ; “ What magnifyiu’ pistols 1 


COLONEL MILES — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 


29 


Aint them darlins’ I A feller wouldn’t laugh what was shot 
with sich fixins ! I swow, they’re most as tine as the Captain’s !” 

The young man glanced at the countenance of the negro, 
at the moment when this warm eulogy was uttered, and thought 
that he had never before witnessed so sinister a physiognomy. 
The twinkle in his white eyes looked even murderous. 

Here Tony approached him with a certain cunning smile, and 
interrogated in a sort of contidential whisper, “Mas’r, am y’ 
one of the speckelaters what ’em calls Forest Rangers?” 

“No,” answered the youth in astonishment. 

“ Then why do y’ take so many tools ?” demanded the negro, 
with saucy impertinence ; and wheeling round he left the room, 
muttering as he went, “He’s not one of ’em, that’s a fac’ ; but 
he ’sembles the Captain, and he has a hoss-load of shootin’ 
irons I” 

The traveller immediately blew out his candle, and threw him- 
self upon his couch ; but the sweet seraph of sleep touched not 
his eyelids with the dew-dropping tinger that baptises the soul 
with Lethean waters, or brings golden dreams. The events of the 
past day all came back in vivid scenes, marching before his mind 
like the figures of a shifting panorama, as manifest to his imagina- 
tion as they had been to his bodily senses. Again, he listened 
to the roar of the hurricane ; he saw the falling forest, wrapped 
in sheets of amethystine flame, and fled for life, with the faith- 
ful Caesar by his side. Again, he held the angel of beauty in 
his arms, and felt her perfumed breath upon his cheek. And 
then, once more, he heard the blast of the bandit’s bugle, the 
firing of guns, the wild shouts of infuriate men, and made his 
escape from the dreadful danger, with that one face shining 
brighter than the starlight so near to his own. 

After a time, however, his thoughts assumed a more practical 
tendency. He reflected, with painful emotions, on the singu- 
larity of the circumstances, under which he met the beautiful 
Mary, and a horrible doubt darkened the divinity, before which 


30 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


his spirit had so nearly bowed down to worship. How happened 
she to be there, so far from the settlement, and alone in the wil- 
derness ? She recognized even the tones of the robbers’ trum- 
pet, and the leader of the band also knew her. She had avoided 
any explanation as to the particulars of her misfortune among 
the outlaws ; she had refused even to answer the questions of 
the sympathising slaves, or so much as to intimate that she had 
been menaced with peril other than from the tornado. And 
then, as the statement of Tony occurred to his recollection, that 
she was ardently beloved by some one, he inferred the foolish 
non sequitur, that she probably reciprocated the passion, and he 
resolved to think no more about her. 

In this manner the tedious hours rolled slowly away until long 
after midnight, when suddenly his quick ear detected the mur- 
mur of voices near the window, and rising softly, he parted the 
curtains, and glanced out through the panes of glass into the 
darkness. He perceived two men standing on the ground out- 
side, one of medial height, and the other unusually tall, his head 
reaching the sill, which was more than six feet from the earth. 

The youth stooped down, and was enabled to catch some 
fragmentary sentences of their whispered conversation. 

‘‘ I wonder what can keep Bill and Comanche Ben so long,” 
said one, impatiently. 

“The devil, their master, only knows,” replied the other; 
“ but we need not wait for them. Let us do the business our- 
selves.” 

“ Impossible 1” answered the first ; “ for, ten to one, the 
traveller came home with the girl, and he would figh*C for her 
like a wildcat, and arouse all the buck niggers on the plantation. 
It won’t do. Captain ; we must have more help.” 

“ I tell you. Jack,” said the latter, with an oath, “ we must 
get Mary away to-night, or she will tell everything, and we 
shall have another lynching scrape, worse than the last one in 
Missouri.” 


COLONEL MILES — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 


31 


“You are afraid also, that she will find a fresh lover in the 
handsome stranger,” suggested his companion, with a half- 
suppressed titter. 

“ Cease your silly jesting,” commanded the other ; “ she shall 
be in my embrace before daylight, or sleep in the skeleton arms 
of death I You must remember that the Colonel will be back 
in the morning, and would surely file a strong bill of exceptions 
against our kind claims to his daughter.” 

At the moment, a slight whistle was heard, and a huge form 
approached the robbers, and speaking to them in a faint whis- 
per, they all disappeared around the corner of the house. Al- 
though the sky was much obscured by passing clouds, the young 
man thought that the third person, whose advent in the scene 
had caused the actors to change their place so quickly, could be 
no other than the loquacious Tony ; and believing that they had 
gone to the sleeping room of their virgin victim, he instantly 
took his resolution. Having already put on his clothing, when 
he ascertained the infernal purpose of the villains, he no w filled 
his pockets with pistols, relumed his candle, and rushing into the 
hall, rung the bell furiously. 

In a minute afterwards, the adjacent cabins of the Africans 
resounded with noise and confusion, and dusky visages swarmed 
into the house in great excitement and fear. The traveller 
related briefly what he had overheard, and ordered an immediate 
search for the bandits, leading the pursuit himself. But the 
reverberating echoes of flying hoofs from the bridge above the 
neighboring stream, at the distance of some hundred yards, pro- 
claimed that the ruffians had taken the alarm, and effected their 
successful retreat. 

On returning to the parlor, the young man was pained to a 
degree that he could not comprehend himself, with the appear- 
ance and conduct of the maiden, whom the previous peril most 
nearly concerned. Her features were exceedingly pale, but her 


32 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


dark eyes remained fixed upon the floor, and she asked no ques- 
tions. 

Breaking the oppressive silence, the youth remarked, with 
agitation, “ The boldness of these bandits is unaccountable. It 
almost staggers belief.” 

“ Yes,” murmured Mary, “ Dinah has told me what you heard; 
but did they say anything about me ?” 

“Only, that they intended to carry you off, or murder 
you.” 

“ Was that all ?” she gasped, with a countenance of terror. 

“That was all,” answered the youth, keeping back half the 
tale of horrors from motives of delicacy. 

The response seemed to relieve her soul from the spectre of 
some appalling thought, aud actuated by a sudden and uncon- 
trollable impulse, §he sprung forwards, and grasping the trav- 
eller's hand, exclaimed in tones of the deepest feeling, “You 
have delivered me twice from a doom more dreadful than the 
tortures of the most cruel death. Oh, tell me how I shall ever 
thank you enough I” 

His doubts all fled away before the celestial music of that 
bewitching voice, more divinely sweet, more pure, more spirit- 
ual, than the wildest wind-notes of the ^Eolian harp, when 
heaven’s own breath plays among its strings beneath the pale 
lustre of the evening star. 

The fascinated youth, with difficulty repressing the warmer 
words that burned for utterance on his tremulous lips, replied, 
with almost passionate fondness, “ The gratitude of one so good 
and beautiful repays me ten thousand times for any little service 
which I have rendered you, and deserves even the devotion of a 
life.” 

At the instant, she dropped his fingers from hers, and uttered 
a startled cry, “ My father I” 

The young man glanced towards the door, and beheld a tall, 


COLONEL MILES — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 


33 


dark-featured man, gazing upon them with a surprised, yet stern 
and menacing look. 

Mary hesitated a moment, and then bounded to the parental 
bosom, crying, Father, this stranger saved my life to-day in 
the storm.^’ 

“ And how did you chance to be out in the storm said the 
Colonel, incredulously. 

“ I started in the morning for a walk to Shelby ville, but was 
assaulted by the robbers, when about half the way. They car- 
ried me off many miles into the forest, when the tempest ovef- 
took us, and amidst their fear and confusion I made my escape ; 
yet I should have been captured again, but for the protection 
and bravery of this generous young man.” 

How long did it take you to manufacture this romance ?” 
asked the father, with a bitter sneer ; “or perhaps you had able 
assistance,” he added, with a disdainful gesture at the stranger. 

The latter responded warmly, “ I can vouch for the truth of 
the most important facts of the story. We were attacked by 
the bandits, and I lost a valuable servant in the rencounter, and 
what is stranger still, two members, as I believe, of the same 
gang, have been here to-night, at this very house, for the pur- 
pose of doing a deadly injury to your daughter, which I was 
fortunately enabled to prevent, from overhearing their whispered 
conversation beneath my window.” 

The ColonePs face lost its color, and he replied, with a quiver- 
ing voice, “ Pardon my unjust suspicions, and accept my grate- 
ful acknowledgments for your brave and generous conduct in 
the rescue of my only child.” 

“ But oh, father,” said Mary, shuddering at the mere recol- 
lection, “ you could never imagine who the robbers were.” 

“ What I did you know them ?” gasped the Colonel, reeling 
as if he had been stunned by a thunder-bolt. 

“ Alas 1 but too well,” affirmed the pale, shuddering girl, 
“ One of them was Captain ” 


84 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Not another word I not for your life !” shouted her father, 
grasping her arm with a force that caused an involuntary cry of 
pain. He then hastily turned to Bolling, remarking in hollow 
tones, “ Young man, as your rest has been so badly broken, you 
had better retire again to your bed, and get some sleep.” 

As soon as the youth had left the parlor, Colonel Miles asked 
in low whispers, as if he feared that the very walls might over- 
hear and report the awful secret, “ Mary, who were the ruffians?” 

She repeated two names, the sound of which sent every drop 
of blood from her father’s face back in frozen currents upon his 
heart, as he inquired, “ What happened ? — tell me all ; but 
speak softly, my dear child, you dream not how terrible is the 
danger.” 

“ I had reached the thicket in the Tanaha bottom,” said the 
daughter, “ when I turned aside to cull some beautiful crimson 
flowers, that I saw gleaming through the wild vines. At the 
moment, the two came up from opposite directions, and saluting 
each other, halted and engaged in conversation. I was so 
entirely concealed by the leafy bushes that they did not perceive 
me ; and not wishing to play the eavesdropper, which I could 
not avoid doing while in such a position, I had resolved to 
emerge from the tangled foliage into the road, and address them, 
when the appalling character of their discourse arrested my 
steps, and as it were rooted my feet to the spot. It causes the 
very blood in my veins to run cold, when I recall the horrible 
revelations of their villainy. They spoke of robbery, theft and 
murder as the common pursuit and pastime of their lives. 
They avowed their purpose to seduce half the slaves in the coun- 
try from their masters, under promises of freedom, and then to 
run them off to Louisiana, and sell them for their own gain. 
They boasted of the numbers that belonged to their band, and 
specified several men of influence as among them.” 

“ Mary, did they mention me in any manner ? Say, for God’s 
sake, did they name me ?” inquired the Colonel, pale as a corpse. 


COLONEL MILES — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 


35 


**No,’^ said the maiden ; “but they spoke of me in such a 
way that I could not wholly suppress an involuntary cry of hor- 
ror. Instantly the Captain darted through the foliage,, and 
seizing me by the arm, dragged me still farther into the woods, 
while his comrade followed, leading their horses. All my prayers 
and entreaties were unavailing. They said that I had become 
acquainted with their plans, and that they must therefore make 
sure of my secrecy. They conducted me to their camp, and 
were discussing the question as to their action towards me, 
whether they should send me. to their great council-ground, as 
they called it, in the Red River swamp, or murder me at once, 
when the hurricane began to howl in the forest, and the trees 
cracked like hail-stones on a skylight. It looked like the end of 
the world. They were too much terrified to notice me, and I 
escaped.’^ 

Have you related the facts to the young traveller inter- 
rogated the Colonel, anxiously. 

“No ; I only told him my fear of the robbers when we first 
met.^’ 

“ Did you mention their names 

“ I did not.” 

“ Did you inform any of the negroes ?” 

“ I have not done so as yet.” 

Her father reflected a minute, and said, with the pale shadow 
of a simulated smile on his dark features, “ Mary, the whole 
thing was a sheer joke, conversation and all, to frighten you ; 
for they are both men of the highest honor, although a little 
wild, and too fond of such practical jests.” 

The astounded daughter gazed on his visage with a look of 
utter bewilderment, as if unable to credit the evidence of her 
own ears, or deeming the speaker distracted. 

“ Do you not think my explanation plausible ?” he asked, scru- 
tinizing her countenance. 

“ What I” she cried, with sudden, and almost angry anima- 


36 


BANNERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


tion, “ did the villains gag me for mere fun ? Was the roar of 
firearms, was th'e hissing hail of bullets, the natural result of a 
childish frolic ? Did the murderous wretches slay or steal the 
stranger’s servant for the sake of the wild sport ? Father, I am 
as much surprised as grieved to witness your indifference when 
you spoke, but an instant ago, of danger the most deadly.” 

“Well, Mary, at all events, it is absolutely necessary that we 
should keep the matter a close secret,” responded the Colonel, 
in a voice and with an aspect of unutterable fear. 

“ And why so ?” she hastily inquired, with flashing eyes. 
“ If we cover up such deeds, do we not become accomplices in 
their guilt ? Oh, my dear father, for once, take your loving 
child’s advice. Denounce the red-handed murderers, and drag 
them to the bar of avenging justice. My testimony alone, and 
I will rejoice to give it, will be sufficient to hang them.” 

The Colonel paced the floor in terrible agitation. At length 
he faltered, “ Mary, I approve your feelings, but we must not 
act as you desire — nay, hear me out — we dare not. The rogues 
in this country are really in the majority, and even command the 
most important offices, including those of judges and sheriffs. 
They have witnesses to swear away any man’s life that they wish 
out of their path, and when offended, they do not hesitate to 
shoot down their enemies, wherever they may find them — by 
the fire-side, in the field, at the wedding, at the funeral, in the 
church, or even in the court-house, anywhere and everywhere, 
without scruple, or mercy, or the dread of punishment. No, 
Mary, we must not betray by any, the least word or sign, the 
consciousness of this foul outrage. We must be in all respects 
precisely as we were before it occurred.” 

“In all respects?” questioned the young girl, in tones of 
frightful agony. 

“We must, or perish 1” 

“ Must I still endure the disgusting attentions of this murder 
ous monster, the hateful captain, whom I always detested ?” 


COLONEL MILES — THE MIDNIGHT ALARM. 


3t 


“ There is no help for it.^’ 

“ Father, I would rather die I” exclaimed Man’y, reeling sud- 
denly, as if shocked beyond endurance. 

“ What do you say, girl ?” yelled the Colonel, griping her 
arm till he nearly fractured the bone, while his features writhed 
in hideous distortions ; “ would you kill me ? 1 tell you that 
my property, my reputation, my life— all, all are in that man^s 
power. It matters not how. He is the master, and I the slave. 
Will you save me by a little courtesy, or murder me by your 
cruel pride 

I will do as you direct,’^ murmured Mary, in a hoarse whis- 
per ; ** anything, everything but give my person to the polluting 
bridal with a devil I That I will never do ; no, not for the sal- 
vation of the whole world.” 

I shall not demand it, my child,” said the father, weeping 
tears of agony. Only let me have a brief space, a few 
months, to mature my plans, to get my hand out of the infernal 
wild beast’s mouth, and I will find the means of settling all 
accounts in one bloody payment.” 

He pronounced the last sentence in a voice that made the 
very marrow creep in his daughter’s bones. She had never 
before seen the face of her father look like that of a demon. What 
could it all mean ? What was this strange, diabolical mystery, 
which seemed to demand the sacrifice of a child so fair i 


CHAPTER III. 


9 

MAJOR MORROW AND SOL TUTTLE — CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 

When William Bolling arose the next morning, after a brief 
and troubled slumber, he found breakfast already prepared on 
the table ; for the people of the backwoods, like the birds and 
beasts of their own dewy forests, are early risers. The Colonel 
saluted his guest with a show of much cordiality, but his man- 
ner evinced uneasiness and apprehension, notwithstanding all his 
efforts to be pleasing. At first, the young man scarcely observed 
the singular embarrassment of his host, his attention being occu- 
pied by the appearance of the fair daughter. She had greeted 
him with a distant bow, as if he had been a mere stranger. Her 
lovely features were pale, and her dark eyes dim, from the traces 
of recent tears. Even her slight, snowy fingers quivered ner- 
vously, rendering her task difficult to fill their cups with the 
steaming, fragrant coffee. 

By way of apology for her too obfious agitation, the Colonel 
remarked, “We must excuse Mary^s awkwardness this morning; 
she has not yet recovered from the effects of yesterday’s adven- 
ture.” 

“ It is no wonder that the recollection should be profound, as 
well as painful,” said Bolling, thoughtfully. 

“ Such occurrences are so common in this country that they 
have almost ceased to excite surprise,” returned the other, indif- 
ferently. 

“ It must be a strange state of society — nearly as bad as the 


MAJOR MORROW AND SOL. TUTTLE — CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 89 

» 

lawless condition of^ savage life/’ answered the youth. “ I regret 
it the more, as I had intended to make this section of the repub- 
lic my future home.” Mary raised her eyes with a quick glance 
of mingled pleasure and curiosity. 

“ Did you purpose opening a plantation?” interrupted Colonel 
Miles. 

“ Such was my plan,” replied Bolling ; and then, hesitating 
an instant, between the prudence which forbade him to be over 
communicative and his desire to effect a favorable impression in 
the mind of the charming daughter, the latter motive prepon- 
derated, and he added, “ my business in Texas is rather that of 
an agent than of a principal. My father and uncle have 
deputed me to select and purchase a large quantity of lands, 
with a view to their own actual settlement, as well as subsequent 
speculation in sales.” 

“ A most perilous enterprise, truly,” exclaimed the Colonel, 
seriously. 

“I should think any sort of enterprise perilous, after the 
scenes I have witnessed,” answered the young man ; “ the rights 
of property might be as safe among the Camanches.” 

“You mistake my meaning,” replied the other; “I do not 
allude to the impotency of legal restraint, or to the absence of 
civil protection for our security, nor yet to the social anarchy 
which prevails in the community. I refer to the deadly preju- 
dice of the people agains^ speculators in land. Most of the 
squatters would rather shoot one of that odious class than 
butcher the wildest wolf. • So if you have any regard for your 
personal welfare, or even for your life, you will relinquish all 
such dangerous designs.” 

Netled somewhat by the language and tone of this gratuitous 
advice, Bolling retorted haughtily, “ I am not accustomed to 
change my schemes, either from the fear of individual men or of 
mobs.” 

‘ ‘ That is a proper spirit, and perfectly natural iiT the ardent 


40 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


season of reckless youth, and especially as you are yet unac- 
quainted with the country ; but one year’s experience in the 
tumults of Texas will not fail to teach you, that where mobs are 
too powerful for the law, they must always vanquish the bravest 
private citizen.” 

“ Yes ; but the cause of order ever triumphs in the end, and 
if it has its victims and martyrs, it can boast of its heroes also,” 
said the young man, his face beaming with enthusiasm. 

That time will doubtless come in this purple land, at last ; 
but I am afraid it is far distant, and before the day arrives many 
a noble heart must pour out its blood like rain,” remarked the 
Colonel, mournfully. 

From the tenor of his host’s conversation, Bolling concluded, 
perhaps too hastily, that the other, for some unimaginable reason, 
did not wish him to locate in the country, and he addressed 
a question, by way of proving the truth of this inference : “Is 
there no other part of the republic free from the objections 
which you have urged so forcibly ?” 

“ Oh, yes,” answered the Colonel, apparently much relieved 
by the idea ; “ there are large tracts farther west, nearly desti- 
tute of population, and which may be bought for a mere song.” 

“ And which are annually visited by Comanches,” suggested 
Mary, timidly. The father gave her a stealthy, but stern glance 
of reproof, which sent her eyes to the floor. 

“ Your observations strike me as being important,” remarked 
the yoitng man, “ but I must see more of the country and its 
inhabitants before I can determine on my course.” 

“ Remain with us to-day,” said Colonel Miles, “ and you will 
have an opportunity of becoming better acquainted with our 
citizens. Everybody will be here to witness the grand shooting- 
match.” The words were kind enough, but there seemed to be 
no warm welcome in the tones or countenance of the speaker, 
and Bolling’s lofty pride prompted a brief refusal, when he caught 
an anxious, blushing look on Mary’s beautiful face, which 


MAJOR MORROW AND SOL. TUTTLE— CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 4l 


checked the cold response of denial, and he answered in an 
indifferent voice, 

“ I thank you, Colonel ; I will accept your courteous offer of 
hospitality. I must stay in the neighborhood a few days, and 
perhaps 1 may obtain tidings of my lost servant.” 

Make my house your home,” said the other, with the same 
icy air ; and then he added, coloring to the temples, as if ashamed 
of what he was about to say, “ I have one request to make, on 
your own account, as well as my own, that you will say nothing 
in relation to the unfortunate events of yesterday and last night. 
You cannot conceive, nor can I explain, the terrible conse- 
quences to me and to my daughter, which would follow from the 
public agitation of the subject. In the mean time, I will assume 
the task of discovering your slave, if he be alive.” 

It would be impossible to paint the astonishment expressed by 
the young man^s features, on hearing this proposition, but he 
noticed the imploring glance of Mary’s dark eyes, and promised 
as the Colonel desired. 

They had hardly ended their morning repast when the people 
began to gather for the shooting-match, and its incidental past- 
imes. The assemblage was of the most wonderful and miscel- 
laneous description. No human hand could approach a correct 
delineation of the different characters — no, not even the coarse 
pen of Sterne, or the comic pencil of Hogarth. There were 
mingled in one immense motley crowd, both sexes, all ages, 
sizes, colors, classes, — hunters, herdsmen, gamblers, merchants, 
mechanics, planters, preachers, robbers, assassins, and honest 
men, — poverty, independence, and the proudest wealth. There 
might be seen in close proximity, fops, fluttering in gay plumage, 
and sun-burnt forms clothed in leathey and crowned with coon- 
skin caps ; bright belles, rustling in robes of silk, and flash- 
ing with the gleam of golden ornaments, and modest maidens 
in rude, homespun raiment, the fabric of their own looms — all 
enjoying the common holiday, and associating on equal terms, 


4 ^ 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


as if the ideal perfection of Democracy, so long doubted as a 
political myth, had been at last realized. 

On such occasions, a stranger, with prestige of either fame 
or appearance, is always an object of universal attention on the 
frontier ; and accordingly, William Bolling soon found himself, 
much to his vexation and annoyance, the cynosure of all eyes, a 
star, a lion of the first magnitude, with the masses. The inter- 
est was exaggerated, in his case, by some faint rumors of his 
recent encounter with the bandits. For although Colonel Miles 
had sworn the Africans to the strictest secrecy on the subject, 
they could not help whispering all the items within their keeping 
to others, under a similar injunction of inviolable silence. And 
hence, every person to whom he was introduced by his host, and 
many who forced their acquaintance upon him, without formality, 
cross-examined him critically as to the adventure in question. 
He, however, evaded the general inquisition with as little depar- 
ture from the truth as might be, answering to all, that the affair 
amounted to nothing more than a slight alarm, which might, 
perhaps, be without any certain foundation. 

Indeed, he endeavored to avoid the throng as much as he 
could, remaining in the house in the vicinity of Mary. He 
was prompted to this course, not only by that magnetic thread 
of mysterious attraction, which drew him involuntarily to the 
side of the forest-born beauty, but also by the more worldly 
wish, to scrutinize her countenance, at the entrance of each new 
arrival, and thus to learn, from her looks, who were the bandits 
of yesterday, if they should chance to be in attendance. 

Among the first introductions, was a Major Morrow with his 
lady. The former presented a great brawny frame, with a small, 
globular head ; fierce and irregular features, deeply marked with 
yellow freckles ; keen and cruel grey eyes, restless and menacing ; 
enormous red whiskers, and hair of the same fiery tint ; hands 
huge and apparently heavy as sledge hammers ; with an aspect, 
combining the strangest mixture of cunning, ferocity, and satanic 


MAJOR MORROW AND SOL. TUTTLE CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 43 

pride. He was fashionably dressed in rich black cloth, and 
seemed not a little vain of a magnificent gold watch, which he 
consulted every few minutes, like one awaiting impatiently for 
the moment of an important appointment. 

The wife, as if for the sake of contrast, was a pale, delicate 
figure, lithe and slender as a sylph, with features sufficiently 
comely, had they possessed one tinge of color, and eyes of so 
unearthly a black, wild, sad, and glittering, as to fill the heart 
of the beholder wdth involuntary and nameless awe. Had she 
been less youthful, and more deficient in personal charms, she 
would probably have been mistaken by vulgar superstition for a 
witch ; but as the case was, she might have sat for the picture of 
some melancholy ghost, that had been disembodied by love and 
suicide. 

“ I hear, Mr. Bolling, that you had a fight yesterday with the 
robbers,’^ said Major Morrow, in that singular thumping tone, 
which, more than any other physical peculiarity, distinguishes 
the man of belligerent passions. 

“ I met with some ruffians whose conduct indicated evil inten- 
tions ; but I may, perhaps, have misjudged them,” answered the 
youth, carelessly. 

“ Eh ! you don’t want to talk more about it. You have too 
much modesty to blow your own trumpet. But I can tell you, 
the country swarms with rogues ; and it never will be any better 
until we organize a company of Lynchers. We fixed them in 
Missouri — done the thing up brown, I may say — we hung half 
the thieves, and scared the rest to death !” 

As the major uttered this truculent boast, the young man saw 
an individual who had just entered the room, cast upon the 
speaker a look of indescribable rage and hatred. He then 
advanced, and Colonel Miles, grasping his hand cordially, 
exclaimed, “ I am glad to see you, Sol Tuttle : what success in 
your late hunt on the Trinity ? Let me make you acquainted 
with Mr. William Bolling, of Alabama.” 


44 RANGERS AND RHGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 

“ Mr. Bolling said Sol Tuttle, with a low bow; “ stranger, 

I ax pardon ; but if I mout be so bold, are you akin to the 
Bollings of Old Yirginny ?” 

“ I am the son of General William Bolling, formerly of the 
State you have mentioned, but now a judge in the city of 
Mobile. ” 

“ Then you are of the true grit, and no mistake, a great great 
granson, or sumthen of the sort, of old Pocahontas,” cried Sol, 
squeezing the youth’s fingers so ardently, as nearly to crush the 
bones ; “ Pm myself of the same linage, though of rather a poor 
branch.” 

“ Mr, Tuttle, let me introduce you to Major Morrow,” said 
the colonel. 

“ I know the major a leetle too well already,” answered Sol, 
turning off, with a disdainful smile. 

“ What ! do you mean to insult me ?” cried Morrow, with 
flashing eyes. 

“ No, it ain’t worth while,” replied Tuttle, walking coolly out 
of the door, when the other muttered, “ Pll fix him yet before 
the sun goes down 1” 

Wilham Bolling continued to observe the countenance of 
Mary, as the various individuals arrived ; but he could perceive 
no change which betrayed the advent of the bandits. She kept 
her eyes riveted on the entrance of the parlor, with a disquieted 
look; as if she feared or expected the appearance of some unwel- 
come guest. The youth then remembered that she had used the 
word captain, when checked by her father, on the previous 
night, in her incipient disclosure of the names which he so eagerly 
desired to ascertain ; but he very soon found that this could 
afford him no clue to the discovery sought, since every third 
man in the crowd seemed to wear the nom de guerre specified, 
while the remainder were of higher military rank I 

At length, they all adjourned their mass;;meeting at the dwel- 
ling-house, and collected again in a small prairie, half a mile 


MAJOR MORROW AND SOL. TUTTLE — CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 45 


distant, to witness the shooting-match. The target being set 
up, at sixty yards, the sport opened. A good deal of close firing 
followed, and considerable money was lost and won, but still 
nothing occurred to elicit unusual excitement, until Major Mor- 
row took his station, and poising a long, heavy rifle off-hand, 
cried in boastful accents : — “ Now, look, boys ; and I’ll show 
you how the Lynchers used to shoot in Missouri !” A loud roar 
drowned the last word and the ball pierced the centre of the target. 

Deafening acclamations rent the air ; and the major shouted : 
— “ I’ll bet a hundred dollars in gold, that no other man on the 
ground can beat it.” 

“ You may well say that, for nobody can git nearer a mark 
than the centre,” replied Sol Tuttle, with a sneer. 

“ Then, I’ll bet, that no other man can equal it,” said Mor- 
row, frowning savagely. 

“Done I” answered Sol, without an instant’s reflection. 

“ But you must stake the cash ; I don’t do a credit business,” 
remarked the Major. 

“ May be y’ think I haint got the stuffin, old hoss-fly,” 
retorted Tuttle, pulling out a long, greasy purse, and counting 
out the required sum. He then went to the stand, and measuring 
the distance with his eye, said in tones of thunder: — “ Now, I’ll 
show you how the Moderators used to whip the Lynchers in 
Missouri I” Instantly, he raised his rifle, almost as lengthy as 
himself, and fired quick as a thought. 

“ You have missed the tree !” cried the major, in tones of 
scornful triumph. 

“ I’ll bet you another cool hundred, that my bullet has gone 
right into the same hole as yourn,” answered Sol, with unwa- 
vering confidence. 

“Done,” was the response, and the money was placed in 
deposit. The spectators rushed around the tree, and a dozen 
blows of the axe decided the issue in favor of Tuttle. The two 
bits of lead were found buried together. 


46 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


The features of the major absolutely writhed with vexation 
and rage, as he fulminated the brutal challenge : — “ Suppose 
that we exchange this sort of target for living ones, such as will 
prove where the shot touches by streams of blood I Let us aim 
at each other’s hearts, and I’ll bet you a thousand dollars on 
trust, if you wish, that you fall first I” 

“ I don’t want to shoot you,” replied Sol, “ for yer hide ain’t 
worth the trouble of skinnin’ it from yer carkiss, and yer meat, 
old sinner, would be tougher than bull beef !’’ 

An uncontrollable burst of laughter from the bystanders greeted 
the ludicrous retort ; and Morrow, nearly choking with fury and 
mortification, cried hoarsely, with the adjunct of a horrible oath: 
— “ But you shall fight me, or I’ll horsewhip you within an inch 
of your life I” 

“Wait till the balance of the sport is over, and then we’ll 
see about it,” ^id Sol, with the greatest indifference. 

At the moment, Colonel Miles announced that pistol shooting 
was next in order. The target was fixed at the distance of 
twelve paces, and as previously, many fine shots might be seen, 
but nothing which appeared to approach the ideal of the popular 
imagination. At last, it came to Major Morrow’s turn, and 
again he drove out the centre. He repeated the same boastful 
offer of a bet, which was as promptly accepted by Sol Tuttle, 
and the identical consequences resulted, which had been wit- 
nessed in the contest with rifles. The pistol bullets were imbedded 
in one hole I This time, however, the major uttered no verbal 
threat, but his dagger-like, grey eyes looked murder I 

Suddenly, an immense shout rung on the air : — “ Captain 
Carlyle I Captain Carlyle 1 He will show you how to shoot I 
huzza for the gallant captain !” 

A slender man, with handsome features, long flowing dark 
hair, and vivid black eyes, elbowed his way through the throng, 
bowing gracefully jto the right and left, with the air of a courtier, 
in acknowledgment of the general acclamations. 


MAJOR MORROW AND SOL. TUTTLE — CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 4t 


Young Bolling glanced at Mary, and thought that the new 
comer must be the bandit of yesterday, from her extraordinary 
emotion, her face being mortally pale, and her form vibrating as 
if she were shaken by au earthquake 1 But the demeanor of 
her father gave the lie to any such supposition. For he hailed 
the stranger with extreme cordiality, and even fulsome fawning. 
A still more disagreeable idea then gained possession of Bolling^s 
mind, that Carlyle was the favored lover of the beautiful girl, 
and from this fact resulted her agitation. And although he 
could not be said to feel the consciousness of passion in his own 
bosom as yet, still the very possibility was painfully torturing, 
that her heart might already belong to another. Nevertheless, 
when he scanned the fascinating appearance of the captain, he 
could not discredit the hypothesis suggested by his jealousy. 
At all events, hope whispered to his fancy, “Ae has not saved 
her life as I have done 1” 

The target being again prepared. Captain Carlyle stepped off 
fifteen paces, and after turning his back towards the mark, sud- 
denly wheeled, and fired quick as a flash of lightning. Plaudits 
followed like the roar of a whirlwind. His bullet had penetra- 
ted the centre ! He then snatched from his bosom a small 
pocket Deringer, and repeating the experiment, produced the 
same result. A moment afterwards, a raven flitted some sixty 
feet above his head, through the air ; he raised his other duelling 
pistol, and shot off its neck. The people shouted till they were 
hoarse, and this feat closed the contests with fire-arms. No one 
else dared try his skill that day. 

William Bolling, when he found the opportunity, advanced 
towards Carlyle, so as to get a more accurate view of his features. 
•Their eyes met, and encountered in a stern, searching, protracted 
gaze, as if their two secret souls were, at the first sight, 
measuring each othePs strength, for some future and frightful 
conflict, where one would be sure to perish I The captain did 
not, however, reveal in his countenance any tokens of recog- 


*48 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


nitioD, as if he had ever seen the youth before. He appeared 
to be actuated by a mysterious force of instinctive, natural 
hatred — one of those inexplicable antipathies, which baffle all 
analysis, and bemock psychological laws — and similar to the 
emotion that moved the other simultaneously. Finally, after 
this mutual mute defiance had lasted nearly two minutes, the 
captaiffls glance fell, and he turned away with a smile of revenge, 
lurid as the light of purgatorial flames. 

“ He’s afeerd of you,” said a whisper in Bolling’s ear ; and 
casting his eyes around, he beheld the serious face of Sol Tuttle. 
“Yes, he’s sartanly afeerd of you,” iterated the hunter ; “ but 
you’d better keep yer eye skinned fur him : becaze he’s an orful 
Jewillist I” 

“ I shall not show the white feather, if it pleases the bully to 
cross my path,” said the youth, haughtily. 

“ Oh I no danger of the old Pocahontas blood playin’ craw- 
fish replied the other ; “ but he beats the very devil with his 
pistol. It’s wusser nor thunder 1” 

Hardly had the word left the speaker’s mouth, when Major 
Morrow rushed to the spot, with a murderous light gleaming in 
his grey eyes, crying furiously: — “Tuttle, you must fight me 
now, or take the consequence !” and he' flourished on high a 
heavy horsewhip. 

“Ar’ y’ spilein’ fur a tussle, old wolf?” asked Sol, with a 
merry, ringing laugh, and a visage indescribably comical. 

“ Will you fight me as a man, or must I whip you like a dog ?” 
thundered the major, in tones of phrensied rage. 

“ Some breeds of dogs hev a dangerous habit of bitin’ when 
y’ kick ’em,” retorted Tuttle, with a sly wink, and showing his 
teeth, as if to intimate that he belonged to the canine class 
specified. 

The whip fell, but the howl of pain was uttered by Morrow, 
for quick as the flashing of a thought, Sol seized his wrist, and, 
giving a sudden jerk, dislocated the shoulder of his adversary, 


MAJOR MORROW AND SOL. TUTTLE — CAPTAIN CARLYLE. 49 


and nearly cmshed the bones of his arm, with a grasp like fingers 
of iron. 

“Thar, that feeler will do this time, old coon,” exclaimed 
Tuttle ; “ but if y' fool with me agin. I’ll onjinte yer cussed 
neck !” 


CHAPTER. lY. 


THE BALL — THE DEPARTURE. 

The savage personal rencounter described in the preceding 
chapter, did not interrupt the progress of the festivities. Only 
the defeated Major, with his lady, returned home, after he had 
availed himself of the little surgical aid which the united wis- 
dom of half a dozen quack doctors could afford him. Colonel 
Miles feasted the multitude luxuriously during the afternoon, 
and at night they enjoyed themselves in their favorite pastime 
of drinking and dancing. 

Captain Carlyle almost entirely monopolized the society of 
the fair Mary ; and William Bolling, as he wandered about, like 
a restless spirit, among the throng of spectators, heard, with 
pain, many such expressions as the following : “What a hand- 
some couple ! I wonder when the wedding will take place 1’^ 
and other intimations, showing the general belief that the future 
union of the pair was a fact fully arranged and settled. How- 
ever, their behavior towards each other did not seem to indi- 
cate one particle of true affection on either side. 

The eyes of the captain certainly glowed with the fiercest 
light of animal passion — desire without delicacy, tenderness or 
love ; and his features had a haughty, sneering look, almost 
equivalent to positive hatred. The young girl, on the contrary, 
appeared utterly dejected, and floated through the mazy evolu- 
tions of the waltz, pale, silent, and seemingly unconscious, as if 


THE BALL — THE DEPARTURE. 


61 


dancing in a dream. She never once gazed upon the visage of 
her partner, or replied to his murmured words. Occasionally, 
indeed, her timid glance sought the face of William Bolling, but 
she instantly withdrew her eyes, with strong symptoms of alarm, 
on perceiving that he was regarding her with vigilant attention. 
The youth himself experienced the most disagreeable emotions 
of wonder and grief, but determined to wait patiently, and, at 
all hazards, to devise some means for the solution of the mys- 
tery, before the party should break up. 

Captain Carlyle also noticed the unremitting observation of 
Bolling, and his aspect became positively fiendish, in its ominous, 
sarcastic smile of unutterable ferocity. He opened his thin, 
writhing lips, as if about to thunder some bloody menace of 
insult and defiance, when a frightful incident happened to pre- 
^ vent the act, if such really were his truculent intention. 

Suddenly, in the yard, where hundreds had been carousing 
by the red illumination of an immense pine-log fire, a terrible 
outcry was heard. Shouts, shrieks, curses, and all the usual 
tokens of a murderous rmlkt in the backwoods, rent the midnight 
air, accompanied by the roar of pistols and the ring of clashing 
steel. The populace seemed to be divided into different contend- 
ing factions, some exclaiming, “ Hurrah for Comanche Ben P 
and others vociferating similar ejaculations for “ Sol Tuttle,” 
the hunter ; and the tempest of the battle did not die away 
until the descendant of Pocahontas had compelled three of his 
opponents to beg for quarter, fighting with' his fists alone 
against foes weaponed with firearms, who, having missed their 
intended victim, had unintentionally laid out several of the spec- 
tators dead in their tracks. 

At the commencement of the affray, the crowd in the hall 
rushed out of the door, to witness the conflict, and young Bol- 
ling was left, for a few moments, alone with Mary. He had 
caught, amidst the noise, the name of Comanche Ben, which the 
maiden had associated with the bugle of the bandits, on the night 


62 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


of their attack; but earnestly as he desired to unravel that mys- 
tery, there was another one deeper and dearer to his heart, now 
immediately before him, in the troubled countenance of the 
beautiful girl. 

“You do not appear to enjoy the amusement very much,” 
said the youth, hardly knowing how to begin. 

“ I detest such scenes,” she replied, with a perceptible shud- 
der. 

“ You surely cannot be displeased with the attentions of your 
partner, as he never leaves your side,” suggested Bolling. 

Turning white as a piece of paper, she murmured, in a tremu- 
lous whisper, “ Oh, that he would leave me now and forever !” 

“ Then why do you tolerate his persevering gallantry ?” 

“ For the love of Christ, for pity’s sake, do not ask me I” 
she implored, shivering as with ungovernable fear. 

“ Miss Miles,” said the youth, in low tones of infinite tender- 
ness, “accident made us acquainted, under strange circum- 
stances, yet such as should inspire mutual candor and confidence. 
You have interested me more than I can tell, or eveq explain 
to myself, unspeakably more than any other human being ever 
did on earth. May I claim your pardon for asking a private 
interview ?” 

Her cheek, before so pallid, now burned with the brightest 
crimson, as she commenced her answer in a sweet, sighing whis- 
per. “Yes ; I also wish to speak to you, if” — What proviso 
she was about to annex will never be known, as at the instant 
her father entered, from an adjoining apartment, and with angry 
features, commanded, “ Mary, come here ; I want you.” 

A moment afterwards the throng returned to the room, and 
the waltz went on again, as if nothing had occurred to mar 
their harmony, with the exception of the families whose circles 
had been so rudely broken by the murders in the adjacent yard. 
Mary, however, did not again appear in the hall, and as Bolling 
remained with his eyes riveted on the door through which she 


THE BALL — THE DEPARTURE. 


53 


had made her exit, it suddenly opened, revealing the handsome 
form and smiling face of Captain Carlyle. Their glances met 
in another long, fixed stare of. speechless hatred. But the 
aspect of the duellist had a look of such deadly meaning, so 
cruelly, defiantly triumphant, and withal so scornful and over- 
bearing, that the high-spirited young Virginian took one step 
forward to slap his cheek, when Colonel Miles caught him by 
the arm, and drawing him aside, remarked, “ I want to converse 
with you on a matter of great importance.” 

The two walked out some distance into the garden behind, the 
dwelling, and pausing, the colonel began abruptly, in a grave 
tone : — “ Mr. Bolling, I take you to be a gentleman of the purest 
honor, and therefore, I say to you frankly, that any attentions 
of yours to my daughter, will be disagreeable both to her and 
myself” 

“ I have not voluntarily paid her any attentions — at least, 
any more than her late misfortunes forced me to render,” 
answered Bolling, haughtily. 

The other winced at this reference to services which deserved 
treatment so different, and responded hastily, in more friendly 
tones : — “We are not ungrateful for the brave defence which 
you made against the bandits ; but I have the strongest reasons 
for the sentiment that I expressed in the outset.” 

“ Perhaps, you may deem me unfit to associate on terms of 
equality with your family ; if so, let me assure you, and the 
proof is easy, that I am your peer, both in wealth and respect- 
ability,” said the youth, in accents of caustic bitterness. 

“ The motives for my conduct are not at all of the character 
which you would insinuate,” remarked the Colonel, in a voice of 
displeasure. “ In plain terms, Mary is affianced to another, 
and must, of course, be circumspect in her demeanor towards 
mere strangers.” 

“ Oh, yes, I thought so ; the duellist is the happy man. Col- 
onel, let me congratulate you on the magnificence of your son- 


64 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


in-law, and the misery of your only daughter,” exclaimed Bolling, 
in tones of terrible irony. 

“ Why should she be miserable as the wife of one who pos- 
sesses riches and popularity, and is universally beloved, and 
who could to-morrow be elected to Congress, if he desired the 
honor.” 

“ Because she hates him as immeasurably as I do.” 

“How do you know that ?” cried the father, grasping the 
young man’s arm with convulsive energy, and trembling as with 
an ague. 

“ I infer it from all her looks and actions,” answered Bolling, 

“ and you are perfectly aware of the truth yourself.” 

“You are entirely mistaken,” said the Colonel, breathing 
more freely ; “ and besides, if Mary’s heart were perfectly free, 
you dare not offer her your hand, as I am well advised by 
information which I have received this very night.” 

“ What do you mean ?” interrogated the other, in great sur- 
prise. 

“ Because your proud and aristocratic friends would disown 
and cast you off as a beggar, if you should wed against their 
wishes, and with the family of su^ an indifferent a character as 
mine.” 

“ Some person has told you a base falsehood,” returned Bol- 
ling, with a certain lofty air ; “ I am not dependent on the 
caprices of my kindred, if they were as tyrannical as you allege, 
because I chance to inherit a fortune in my own right, by the 
partial will of my deceased grandfather. However, I will at 
once relieve you from my disagreeable presence, if you will be 
so obliging as to order my horse.” 

“ Surely,” said Miles, joyfully, and hurried away to give the 
proper mandate. 

The youth walked rapidly back to the house, muttering, as 
he went, “ Before my exit, I will claim payment from the cap- 
tain for all the mute insults which he has offered me ; and woe 


THE BALL — THE DEPARTURE. * 


55 


to him if he denies the bloody debt !” But upon entering the 
hall, to his bitter disappointment, the foe had already gone. 

Indeed, it was now nearly daylight, and the assembled multi- 
tude had begun to break up hastily. As the young man passed 
out of the door, with an icy bow to his late host, Sol Tuttle 
hailed him ; 

“Well, Mr. Bolliug, I see you’re about to cut dirt from these 
diggins ; which way 

“ My road lies up the Tanaha,” said the other. 

“ And mine, too,” answered Sol ; “ and I’d be mighty proud 
of yer company.” 

Bolling gladly assented, in the hope to learn something more 
of several persons at the late gathering, ‘ from the friendly 
hunter. But the latter, at first, did not seem in the least dis- 
posed to gratify his curiosity. He rode on in moody silence, 
looking sharply into the bushes on the right and left, as if 
apprehending danger. 

At length their path diverged from the black shadows of the 
forest, and entered a broad expanse of prairie, just as the 
diamond beauties of the golden dawn began to glitter in the 
starry orient ; and almost immediately, the full, infinite efful- 
gence of the divine day illuminated the earth and sky. For in 
that genial Southern land, the perfection and prime of light do 
not come by slow growth, as in the higher latitudes of the 
unfriendly frozen Korth. First, you see a faint sparkle, a gleam 
of pale fire, modest as the earliest love-beam of a timid eye ; 
next a sweet suffusion, a crimson glow, like the blush of burning 
blood on the warm cheek of a virgin bride, as she moves on the 
arm of her chosen one to the altar ; and then, quick as the rapid 
rush of lightning, the sun, in cloudless glory, parts the azure 
curtains of the air, and, like some almighty giant, as he is, leaps, 
at one flaming bound, out of heaven, upon the earth he loves, 
and clasps it with fiery caresses. All the bright birds warble, 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


66 


the butterflies flash their rainbow wings, and the bees murmur 
around the honey-dew of the flower-cups. 

At the instant, the spirits of the hunter became luminous 
with the air, and he banished all previous apprehension from his 
mind. The effect, it must be candidly confessed, did not originate 
so much from any sentiment arising out of the poetical beauty 
of the morning, as from the more rational sense of its practical 
utility. If he chanced to encounter enemies now, it would be 
even-handed, and they could not take him by surprise. 

“ It appears that you had quite a battle, last night,” remarked 
Bolling, with another effort to elicit discourse. 

“ Yes ; and it was all on yer account,” said Sol, with a 
twinkle of humor in his merry black eye. 

“ How so ?” inquired the youth. 

“ Yes,” continued the hunter, not heeding the question ; “ and 
I’ve been uneasy all the way on yer account, too.” 

“ Well, suppose that you explain the cause, and then I may 
perhaps sympathise with your feelings,” remarked Bolling with a 
smile. 

“It’s rather a long story, and I’d rather not commence until 
arter breakfast,” answered Sol, with an affected seriousness that 
failed to hide his anxiety to begin at once* 

“ Oh, as to that, you can cut the matter as short as you 
please ; only let me have some fragment of the tale, as it so 
nearly concerns myself,” urged Bolling, very interested. 

“ I guess as how it does,” replied Tuttle. “ Perhaps you mout 
know Mary Miles ? Don’t redden so about yer gills, for I seed 
you lookin’ at her, mighty sweet. Well, I’m powerful intermate 
with her, and I’ll tell you how it come. The gal has an uncle, 
old Jack Miles, who’s the only neighbor in a day’s ride of my 
wigwam ; and so, as there be but two on us and our families, 
you may swear we don’t quarrel. Every year, and sometimes 
oftener, Mary goes out thar to see her kinsfolks ; for though 


THE BALL THE DEPARTURE. 


57 


th ey be poor, like meself, she’s too good to be proud ; and so 
you see as how I come acquainted with her. Well, she took to 
sort o’ likin’ me, but I liked her better ; and that’s the ’casion 
of the intermacy I spoke about. Now maybe yer would wish to 
know what she said to me last night, consarnin’ you I” interro- 
gated the hunter, with a sly wink. 

“ As you please,” said Bolling, coloring to the eyes. 

“Well, jist before we left, she slipped round the house, and 
tuk me one side, and sez she, Mr. Tuttle, you wer interduced to 
a young man called William Bolling? ‘Yes,’ sez I. Sez she, 
‘ He’s in danger ; some persons ar goin’ to murder him.’ ‘ Who ?’ 
sez I. ‘ I can’t give their names,’ says she ; ‘ but, Sol, yer a brave 
feller, and if ye’ll jist ride off with him, for my sake, and hold 
yer tongue on the subjec’. I’ll thank you as long as I have 
breath.’ And then the big shinin’ tears come into her black 
eyes, and in mine, too, and 1 swore I’d do it.” 

“ Was that all she said ?” inquired the youth, in accents of 
the deepest anxiety. 

“ Yes ; for then the Colonel walked up, with a face mad as a 
thundercloud, and cussin’ like blazes, told her to make herself 
scarce.” 

“ Have you any idea when Miss Miles will visit her relations 
in your neighborhood again ?” asked Bolling, with indications 
of emotion too profound for concealment. 

“The fust of next month, so she told me yisterday; and if 
you’ll jist go home with me, Susy and the children will be glad 
to see you ; and by waitin’ a week, you can chat with her as 
much as you want.” 

“I cannot accept your offered hospitality for the present, 
but I will endeavor to avail myself of it in a few days,” replied 
the young man, kindly* “ I must try to discover a valuable 
servant that I lost a short time since.” 

“ I heerd about it,’’ remarked Sol ; “ and thar’s not a doubt 
the robbers have got him.” 


68 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


What course would you advise me to adopt, under the cir- . 
cumstances ?” interrogated Bolling, thinking that the hunter’s 
familiar experience with the wild scenes of forest life might ena- 
ble him to impart useful information. 

The latter reflected seriously a brief space, and said, “You 
had better go to Major Morrow, and tell him all about it. He 
can do more for you than I can. He’s got a secret Lynchin’ 
company, and is up to all the cunnin’ tricks of the rogues. You 
see, I give you misinterested counsel, for I hate the old sinner 
worse nor a polecat. I put his shoulder out of jint last night, 
but the next time that he fools with me, it shall be his neck.” 

“ May I be allowed to ask what was the cause of the ani- 
mosity between you ?” 

“ He killed my brother in Missouri,” answered Sol, in tones 
unutterably mournful, while the great round tears rolled down 
his sunburnt cheeks like rain-drops. 

As soon as he became less agitated, in order to divert his 
attention from the painful subject of his thoughts, Bolling 
inquired, “ What sort of a country is it where you reside ?” 

The hunter responded with almost poetic enthusiasm : “A 
perfect paradise — a big sea of prairies, level as a barn-floor, and 
sweet leetle islands of timber sprinkled all over it, with deers 
thick as cattle in a medder, thq^sile black as yer hat, the green 
grass up to yer head, and full of yeller flowers as the sky is of 
stars.” 

“ Do you own the land where you live ?” 

“ No ; all that belongs to a rich speckerlater in Shelby ville, 
who won’t sell less pieces than a thousand acres. He owns fifty 
miles square.” 

“Would you object, if I should purchase the entire tract?” 
asked Bolling, cautiously, remembering^he statements of Col- 
onel Miles as to the bitter prejudices of the squatters. 

“ By no means,” answered the other, promptly ; “ I don’t 
feel about it as some men do. I know the sile isn’t mine, and 


THE BALL THE DEPARTURE. 


59 


perhaps not much of it ever will be, so it matters not who else 
has it. But the wild bucks and buffaloes are my property as 
much as my own boss, when they git within reach of my rifle ; 
and them no speckerlater can take from me, unless he shoots ’em 
fust.” 

“How does it happen that Colonel Miles is so wealthy, 
while his brother is so poor ?” interrogated Bolling, suddenly 
changing the theme. 

“ That is more nor I can say,” responded the hunter, with a 
dubious shake of the head ; “ some people think that the Colo- 
nel has speckerlated mishonestly. -One thing is sartin, that he’s 
made his fortin since he went to Texas, only ten years ago.” 

“ Are you acquainted with Captain Carlyle ?” 

“Ah I thar’s another of them upstarters, that got rich in a 
hurry ; ” said Sol. thoughtfully. “ Five winters past, and he 
fetch up in Shellyville, without a penny in his pocket, and now 
he has a big plantation, and works a hundred niggers. Prehaps 
he made it shootin’ sumthin’ else than birds !” 

“ Does any body accuse him of dishonest conduct ?” 

“No ; every body is too much afeerd of him to speak a word 
agin him, and I advertise you to keep yer eye skinned when you 
meet him ; fur it’s my expression that he’s the chap who inten- 
ded to murder you last night, that yer gal spoke of.” 

“ He will meet with me sooner than he expects,” remarked 
Bolling, with a terrible look. 

After deliberating in silence for some time, the youth deter- 
mined to follow the hunter’s advice, and seek an interview with 
Major Morrow. Having communicated his purpose to the 
other, Sol. after pressing him not to forget his promised visit, 
showed a dim path to the right, leading towards the heavy 
forests of the Taiiaha, which he asserted, would conduct him to 
his destination, and they parted with emotions of mutual good 
will. 

William Bolling pursued Ins journey alone over the wild 


60 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


desolate prairie, waving with long grass, and sparkling with the 
most brilliant flowers, even at this early season of the young 
year. For in that glorious climate, the most divine in the 
world, the sunbeams of the first month in Spring turn to eme- 
rald verdure and amethystine blooms almost as soon as they 
touch the earth with kindly kisses of fire. The red deer wantoned 
in the balmy air, or reclined on the velvet green sward, the tur- 
keys uttered shrill calls to their mates, the wild horses careered 
in the blue distance, tossing their free tails like banners in .bat- 
tle ; but the unconscious youth, saw nothing, heard nothing, 
remembered nothing, save the self-created, but most vivid and 
bewitching spectres of his own thoughts. His soul wandered at 
will in a fairy and most fantastic world of dreams, the bright 
creatures of imagination and love. Yes, he loved. He felt it 
in every pulsation of his heart, in every changing idea of his 
feverish throbbing brain, and he realized the immutable fact, that 
he had never before in all his life, known even the meaning of the 
word passion. The new feeling, like an unutterable inspiration, 
the lightning shock of some celestial flame, mastered his reason, 
conquered his senses, absorbed all his essence, sowed the universe 
with stars, coined the air into bridal songs, transmuted every 
sand-grain on the common earth to gold. All the trees were 
of living emerald, and every rock glittered with the dust of dia- 
monds. 

While present by the dear one’s side he had wavered, won- 
dered, doubted. But a few brief hours of absence, had changed 
her into an angel of perfection, purity, and more than mortal 
beauty — a thing to be worshipped, sainted, and enshrined in the 
holiest place of the heart for ever more. What mattered it to 
him with this fire in his blood, this wild lightning in his brain, 
this sweet madness in his mind, that insuperable difficulties barred 
the road to fruition — that fortune, friends, other and older vows, 
fierce foes,* and death itself, appeared in the path to the heavenly 
hope, and warned him away as with hands of horror. He 


THE BALL — THE DEPARTURE. 


61 


would vanquish all, do battle against impossibilities, reverse the 
iron wheel of destiny, unsphere the laws of nature, and grasp 
his prize, or suffer annihilation of the soul itself in the crisis of 
the conflict I For the first impulse of love, everywhere and 
ever, is a frenzy which embodies itself in fire-pictures of fancy 
and feeling. 


CHAPTER V. 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA 

At length, aroused from his deep reverie — that heavenly 
dream of the heart, which comes to every human soul but only 
once, in the light of the golden dawn that lies on the sweet 
paradise of our youth — William Bolling found himself at the 
gate of an immense field, and, from the previous description of 
the place, as sketched by the hunter, he recognized it instantly 
as the residence of Major Morrow. Indeed, the plantation was 
so singularly arranged, that no one who had ever heard of it, 
could possibly mistake the locality. The dwelling of the owner, 
built of enormous pine logs, in the formr of a block-house, pierced 
on all sides by port-holes, for musket and rifle, stood in the 
middle of the vast field, and at the centre of a considerable 
square, composed of negro cabins, as if the whole had been 
specially constructed for a strong position of defence. Nor were 
other indications wanting to prove the military forethought of 
the Major in a prudent provision to guard against surprise. 
The farm absolutely swarmed with dogs of every variety, among 
which the terrible bloodhound predominated in numerical force 
and ferocity. 

As soon as the young man made his appearance, all these 
savage monsters seemed to consider him an intruder upon their 
domain, a natural enemy, upon whom they had an inalienable 
right to pounce, without a moment’s warning ; and ut1;^ring 
unearthly howls of rage, they rushed towards him from all 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


63 


directions, like a whirlwind of hairy demons. Fortunately, the 
fence was high, and being outside of the enclosure, the stranger 
was safe from an immediate assault. 

In a brief space, an African hastened from the house, and 
stilling the canine tempest by a few hearty curses and well-aimed 
blows, inquired, with a profound obeisance, “ Pray, massa, what’s 
yer will 

“ I desire to see Major Morrow.” 

“ In dat case ye must send de name ; fur him won’t allow any 
wagabond strangers to come in de gate,” remarked the slave, 
with a look of suspicion. 

Bolling gave the required address, adding that he wished to 
consult the major in reference to a servant, who had recently 
been stolen by the robbers. The other hurried away on his 
mission, and shortly returning, with a countenance of evident 
satisfaction, opened the ponderous wooden gate, saying, “ Massa 
Morrow be berry glad to see you.” 

The youth, however, hesitated to enter the hurricane of dogs, 
whose red gleaming eyes continued to watch him with unwaver- 
ing attention. “ Neber be ’fraid of dem now, massa,” said the 
negro, noticing the dubious apprehension of Bolling ; “ when 
me lets you in, dey acknowledge you fur a friend, and would 
fight for you, at de drop of a hat.” 

With this comfortable assurance, the other entered, and 
instantly experienced the truth of the African’s assertion. The 
shaggy fiends suddenly changed their hostile attitude for one of 
the most intense welcome, leaping playfully around him, and 
filling the air with ringing, deep-mouthed music. How strange 
a mystery is the manifestation of animal instinct I , This uner- 
ring sagacity without speech, this logic without laws, this pecu- 
liar inference of the senses, which often fails not even where 
human reason falters, and where the formal rules of the syllogism 
lead to fatal errors. Is there indeed a god within the bosom of 
the mere brute, as well as in the brain of his lordly master ? 


64 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


Bolling met with a most cordial reception from the major, 
which was perhaps due to the mature of his errand, more than 
to any personal predilection in the mind of the other. 

“ You must excuse the offer of my left hand,” said Morrow, 
bowing, and holding out his great hairy fingers ; “ that hang- 
dog of a hunter pulled my shoulder out of joint yesterday ; but 
it’s set now, and will be all right in a week, and then ” — . He 
checked the menace, but his awful aspect told that it would 
have conveyed a murderous meaning. “ Take a seat,” he added. 
“ And so you wish my assistance to find your nigger. You could 
not have called on a better hand. I’m arter the rogues with a 
sharp stick, and the end of it on fire. You were a little shy at 
the Colonel’s ball ; but that was right, as half the people there 
were thieves ; and, cunning with courage, is the ginuine watch- 
word for these diggins. Howsomever, you must now tell me 
all about it.” 

The young man commenced, and narrated the principal facts 
connected with his adventure among the bandits, suppressing 
only what related to the beautiful girl ; his soul revolting at the 
bare idea of mentioning even her musical name in the presence 
of so coarse an auditor. 

The major heard him with marked attention patiently to the 
close, and then exclaimed, with an air of deep thought, “ It’s a 
very bad case. These were no common robbers, or petty thieves, 
but the ringleaders of a powerful band, as bloody-minded as 
they are brave. Your nigger is a goner, I’m afraid.” 

“ Do you think that they have killed him ?” inquired Bolling, 
sadly. 

“ Oh, no danger of that,” answered the other, “if they could 
help it. Their business is not to shoot darkies, which would be 
unprofitable sport, but to steal them and run them off to the 
States for sale. In this way some of the villains have become 
rich in a few years.” 

“Do you know who the chiefs of the enterprise are ?” 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


65 


“ May be as how I do, and may be as how I don^t, but cun- 
ning with courage is the right talk,” said the major, with an 
inscrutable twinkle in his gleaming grey eye. 

“ You think then, that I may as well relinquish all hopes of 
recovering my servant ?” interrogated Bolling in gloomy tones. 

“Wait until to-morrow, and after consultin’ some of my 
neighbors, I will be able to tell you better ; but I’m sure we’ll 
never do much with them rascals, unless we raise a big Lynch- 
ing company, as we did in Missouri and the major uttered a 
low fiendish chuckle, at the recollection of. scenes which, if des- 
cribed, would have startled his hearer with unmitigated horror. 

“ If we could only bring them all together at one grand 
barbacue, and poison them 1” suggested a voice in strange mild 
sweetness. 

“Just listen at her !” cried the major, with a frown ; “ pisen 
is Joanna’s great medicine to cure the robbers of the itch on 
their fingers ; but I call that downright murder I” 

“ Ah !” reasoned the wife, in the same mellifluous accents ; 
“ I cannot see the difference betwixt your medicine and mine. 
You stab, hang, burn, and whip the rogues to death. But cer- 
tainly the most genteel, as well as easy way of dying, is by poi- 
son ; I do not mean any of those common coarse drugs, but 
some quick subtle extract, that kills like a flash of lightning !” 

“ Shut up,” ordered the husband savagely ; “you make my 
very hair stand on an end !” 

It must be confessed that young Bolling fully concurred in 
the major’s sentiment. He gazed, with a cold shudder at the 
visage, immovable as marble, of that singular woman, who could 
thus deliberately avow and openly defend, the perpetration of 
crimes the darkest, the most atrocious in the calendar of 
human guilt, or even in that of devils 1 He thought at first, 
that her words must be ironical, but her features betrayed no 
such import. There was not a gleam on her pale colorless face, 
changeless as a surface of snow ; while her wild black eyes 


66 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


seemed as ever sad, and profoundly earnest. He was surprised, 
however, as well as shocked. Her forehead had a massive 
breadth and height, denoting much intellect, and her language 
at once luminous and grammatically accurate, revealed some 
mental culture. There was nothing about her positively dis- 
pleasing, save the mouth, with icy thin lips, sculptured into a 
sinister smile, that seemed to have frozen there forever. Her 
age might amount to forty-five summers, but although she was 
the mother of a troop of sons and daughters, her appearance 
showed few traces to indicate the flight of time. Her brow 
presented not one furrow, and her luxuriant ringlets had the 
raven’s blackness. 

William Bolling, notwithstanding all his abhorrence, felt 
himself involuntarily spell-bound, bewitched, as it were, literally, 
by the unaccountable fascinations of this wicked-hearted female. 

“ Have you noticed !hy armory ?” inquired Morrow, changing 
the subject, and pointing with a gesture of pride to the four cor- 
ners of the room, which were all filled with enormous stacks of 
weapons, rifles, muskets and swords. The mantel-piece, too, was 
covered with knives, daggers and pistols of every form and cali- 
ber, from the long duelling barrel to the murderous revolver 
of Colt, and the not less deadly tube of Deringer. 

“ Ain’t they darlin’s ?” asked the'' owner, with an a'Spect of 
infinite beatitude, as he smoothed and handled these shapes of 
steel, and even talked to them, as if they had been children of 
his bosom. These are the true friends,” he said, with glowing 
enthusiasm. “ They never desert one in the day of danger. 
They never lie or tattle or deceive. They never ask for anything 
but a thimblefull of powder and a small bite of lead, and they 
never talk at all, but in tones of thunder, and always speak to 
the purpose. They are gentler than horses, for they never kick ; 
and far more obedient than slaves for they never jaw you back ; 
and if you only touch them with even your little finger, they 
move in an instant, and lay the proudest foe humble at your feet I* 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


6t 


The major then proposed a walk over the farm. Bolling 
assented, and they rambled around the vast field, including 
nearly a mile square of level bottom land, fertile as the soil of a 
garden, and in a fine state of cultivation. The young corn 
was now about as tall as the knees, undulating in graceful green 
waves before the wind, like a sunny sea of emerald. Some fifty 
slaves were busily employed in ploughing and hoeing, and the 
young man thought that he could detect, in many of their coun- 
tenances, tokens of bitter hatred towards their master. 

They had approached the fence on the bank of the Tanaha, 
when suddenly a dark form sprung from the clump of bushes, 
and uttered a loud exclamation of the wildest joy ; “ 0 Massa 
Bolling ! O dear dear Massa Billy, am you here and the lost 
Caesar, weeping tears of unutterable emotion, rushed forwards 
and clasping the young man’s hand, kissed it with as devout a 
fervor, as if it had been a holy relic. 

“ Where have you been ? How did you escape ? tell me all 
the circumstances,” said the master with dewy eyelids, almost as 
excited as the slave himself. 

“ When you got away,” began Caesar, “ I was so powerful 
glad, that I cried loud ; thank God massa’s safe ; so one of them 
hollered to the rest, don’t kill him for he’s a nigger, but all of 
you catch him.’ Then they tried to gather round me, but the 
white mule kicked like a whole team, and I kept blazin’ fast as 
possinble with your revolver, and I ’spec’ I hit one or two of ’em, 
fur I heard ’em squall out, like roosters cotch by a fox, and then 
they tuk to shootin’ back, and I ’eluded, that I’d never see Ala 
bama any more. Then I thought of a trick, and jumpin’ outen 
the saddle, run off through the bushes. Arterwards, I circled 
round till I found the trail some miles ahead, and I’ve kept on 
Selim’s track ever since. I knowed it by a jog in the shoe. But 
I had to come dreadful slow, dodgin’ about in the brush, fur I’se 
feer’d to be seen, ’case some one might steal me.” 

“I am very glad to see you,” said the youth, his features 


68 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


beaming with affectionate delight ; I had come to persuade 
this gentleman to aid me in searching for you.” 

“But wharfs the angel gal ?” inquired the slave anxiously. 
Bolling gave him a token to be silent on that subject, and the 
other then asked with signs of equal interest ; “ have you seed 
anything of Bob ? poor fellow I I ’spec^ the robbers am got him.” 

“ 0 no,” answered his master smiling ; “ the white mule 
overtook me, in a short time after the attack, and has continued 
with Selim since. You will find him in the stable. 

“ Ah I I’m so happy,” cried Caesar, still weeping ; I like 
Bob better nor anything in the world ’cept you.” 

The incident furnished the major a datum for the universal 
and necessary inference, which he deduced equally from all sorts 
of facts ; “We must organize a great company of lynchers.” 

They all walked, to the house, and Caesar being dismissed to 
the kitchen, the major’s family with their guest, sat down to 
supper, at the fashionable hour in the backwoods, a little before 
sunset. Bolling had now an opportunity of inspecting the other 
members of this peculiar social circle. They consisted of three 
sons, ranging from nineteen to twenty-three years of age, huge 
freckle-faced, red-haired images of their father, and two daugh- 
ters, the eldest of whom proved her own paternity by the strong- 
est species of ocular evidence ; while the younger somewhat 
resembled her mother, having her eyes of unearthly black, and 
strange beauty of form and feature, without the corpse-like pale- 
ness of her complexion, and the icy smile of her sinister livid 
lips. This young girl, indeed, would have been extremely 
charming, but for the awkward, blushing, bashfulness of her 
manner, and her obvious want of intellectual cultivation. How- 
ever, both these extraneous defects might yet, perhaps, be remo- 
ved, as she had scarcely arrived at the verge of fifteen. 

After the repast had ended, the major remarked to his guest, 
“Joanna and the girls must amuse you to-night, as I have 
important and pressing business in the neighborhood that will 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


69 


engage me till a late hour. Come, boys, get your weapons and 
let’s make tracks.” And the old bear and his three cubs, 
shouldered their guns, loaded themselves with revolvers and 
bowie knives, and started on some unknown nocturnal mission. 

In order to while away the time,, as neither Joanna nor her 
timid daughters, seemed disposed to entertain him with their 
conversation, Bolling stepped to a large book-shelf, supported 
by pins driven into the wall, and which appeared to be well 
supplied with learned looking octavos. The first volume that 
he picked up, was the record of the most celebrated criminal 
trials in all ages and nations, at least, so the title announced in 
pompous phrase. Upon turning. over the leaves, he discovered 
from their soiled thumb-worn condition, that they had been 
thoroughly studied, especially the numerous cases of prosecution 
for poisoning, which all, in addition to the horrible text, con- 
tained marginal notes, in a delicate female hand, showing that 
they had been devoured con amore. All the other books related 
to medical or chemical science, and the youth shuddered to per- 
ceive that several treatises on poison had been annotated, like 
the criminal record, previously mentioned, with reference to 
baneful herbs and their effect upon animal life. 

Determined, if possible, to penetrate the mystery, he inquired 
apparently in careless tones ; “ may I ask, madam, if any of your 
relatives are physicians ?” 

“ I am a female doctor, myself, as my mother was before me,” 
replied the sweet sinister voice. 

“ It must be an interesting profession,” suggested the youth, 
feeling his way. 

The wild black eyes instantly sparkled with sudden animation, 
as the lady answered 0 it is a divine study, for which I 
always felt a love amounting almost to positive passion. Let 
poets and philosophers prate as much as they like, about the 
wonder-working control of the mind over matter, what is that 
compared with the still mightier effects of matter upon mind ? 


10 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


A few grains of opium can wrap the soul in dreams of elysian lux- 
ury, or thrill it with infernal pangs of fiery torture I The green 
tincture of an Indian herb, can bring bliss which the rose bower 
of Eden never knew. The purple juice of a plant, that creeps 
on the bosom of every prairie, can fill the mind with murderous 
madness, such as all the sages on earth could never hope to cure. 
Wild weeds grow in every forest, that yield an essence by proper 
distillation, one drop of which on the tongue, will kill the strong- 
est giant of mortal mould, quick as the blaze of a thunderbolt. 
One fact alone decides the issue of strength between the two 
worlds, the spiritual and material j the mind cannot destroy one 
living organ, but ten thousand forms of matter, can wither and 
dissolve the entire frame, and send the spirit away on its last 
long journey.” . ^ 

The other looked at the feminine speaker, with feelings of. 
unutterable astonishment.. He had shared the common preju- 
dice, that very little intelligence might be expected on the fron- 
tier, forgetting that countless different causes — misfortune, pover- 
ty, crime, and innate restlessness, have combined to drive exiles 
from every land into the sheltering shadows of those dark green 
woods. At length he asked ; “ Where was your native place ?” 

“London,” she answered, her countenance returning to its old 
sad expression ; “my father was an eminent professor of Chemistry 
till a great calamity compelled us to emigrate. We wandered 
to Missouri, where the dust of all my family now rests in quiet, 
which no storm can ever more disturb.” She paused a moment, 
and added in a strange tone, “ did you never feel that it would 
be a joy to die ?” 

“ I cannot say that I ever experienced the desire of which you 
speak,” responded Bolling, a sense of the ludicrous, rapidly effa- 
cing his previous serious impression. 

“ I do not allude,” she continued, “ to the sweet tranquillity 
which death insures the dreamless repose, tDe freedom from all 
pain and passion ; from the doubts of love, and from the agonies 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


71 


of hate although for these and all other earthly ills, the dark- 
ness of the grave is a sovereign remedy. I refer to the 
knowledge which the immortal mind may, perchance, attain 
when liberated from the thrall of the material senses. I want to 
pierce the secret heart of the universe ; to get behind the shift- 
ing scenes of purple clouds, and painted sunshine, and hold the 
hand which moves them ; to scan the golden axles of ten thou- 
sand rolling worlds, and see on what they hang. To perceive, to 
know, and never more to guess, or vaguely imagine, ah ! may 
not death give us that, for surely life never can ?” 

“ But may it not also give us something more than that 
said the youth weighing slowly his words, and watching their 
effect ; “ may it not bring us justice ? may it not measure out pun- 
ishment for all our sins ? may it not place us face to face with 
the victims that we have so cruelly wronged in life ? May not 
the circumstances be reversed, and the victims exercise the office 
of avengers ? may not those who were the slain in this world 
become the slayers in the next ?” 

She started suddenly as if stung by an adder, her thin lips 
were convulsed as by spasms of shooting pain, and she spoke no 
more that night. 

In the meantime, as singular, and perhaps a much more 
amusing discussion was going on, in one of the small negro cabins, 
some fifty yards distant. The sable interlocutors were a vain 
but ignorant mulatto, with sinister features, whom they called 
Hannibal, or by the usual abbreviation, Han., Caesar and Tony, 
the latter having arrived after nightfall from the plantation of 
Colonel Miles. 

“ I wonder. Darky, that you did not stay away when you had 
got rid of yer master so easy remarked Han with a sneer. 

“ Whar would I stay, out amongst the wolves ?” answered 
Caesar innocently. 

“ He’s ignorant as a goose 1” said Han with a look of affected 
pity. 


72 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ He don’t know nuthin’ of life, no more nor a blind boss 1” 
added Tony with an air of pride. 

“ Would you have me to live on grass, like a buffalo 
interrogated Caesar with a puzzled countenance. 

Lor no, you black booby I” laughed Han ; “ couldn’t you use 
yer legs, and make ’em carry you to the free States ?” 

“ Whar’s that?” asked Caesar, opening his big white eyes, till 
they appeared like two enormous dogwood blossoms. 

“ Jist listen to him I” cried Han, while he and Tony burst 
into loud peals of merriment, showing all their ivory. 

“ Well, I s’pose I must colluminate yer ignorance, poor Nig- 
ger,” observed Han with a face of commiseration ; “ there am 
free states way up toward the north star.” 

“ Do you mean heaven ?” interrupted Caesar. 

“ O Lor I you’ll kill this here chile I” shouted Han, laughing 
until the tears rolled down his cheeks ; while Tony tumbled on 
the floor, and kicked with tempestuous mirth, as if in convul- 
sions. 

As soon as Han could master his emotions, he continued ; 

The free states am in Canady, and thar’ niggars am better nor 
anybody else. Them am the gentlemen, and the others black 
thar boots. Them do jist what ’em please ; marry white gals 
and cuts up all sorts of shines. Well, s’pose you don’t know the 
* way thar, plenty of white men in these parts to show you. 
These have meetin’s in de woods arter night, and tell you all 
’bout it. Thar am one to-morrow evenin’, spose you go ’long on 
us ; but if you cheap, we’ll cut yer throat,” 

“What do they call these white men that help niggers to 
run off ?” asked Caesar. 

“ Hobbolitions, or bobolitionists, I don’t know circumspec’ 
which,” replied Tony. 

“ I’ll see about it,” Caesar remarked prudently, and the meet- 
ing adjourned, sine die. 


CHAPTER YI. 


CAPTAIN CARLYLE AND LUCY— THE MURDER. 

The residence of Captain Carlyle was situated in the rich 
alluvial delta of the Tanaha and Sabine, near their point of 
junction. It consisted of a large farm in a high state of culti- 
vation, well peopled by numerous choice slaves, while the dwel- 
ling was a sort of fortress, very similar to that of Major Mor- 
row% with this difference, that instead of standing in the middle 
of the field, it occupied the bank of the river, which happened 
in that place to be high and precipitous. 

On the morning of the day when the events occurred that I 
have just related, the proprietors of the plantation might have 
been seen seated at a most sumptuous breakfast in a small room 
of his house, which he chose to dignify with the name of 
“ Library,” and which, it must be confessed, was not altogether 
unworthy of the title. An elegant book-case, of black walnut, 
was well supplied with gold-dust of the immortal dead, embrac- 
ing the elite of the ancient and modern classics, but especially 
the works of the great masters in jurisprudence and political 
science. A costly sofa, and several handsome chairs, with some 
beautiful paintings, and a full-length portrait of the owner on 
the walls, gave an air of luxury and refinement to the apartment, 
seldom witnessed in the backwoods. 

Nor did the presiding genius of the place appear ill-adapted 
to the scenes around him. He was a slender man, about thirty 
years of age, with a regular face, a somewhat dark complexion, 

4 : T3 


74 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


eyes of vivid, burning black, shining with calm and steady lustre, 
beneath a forehead unusually broad and well developed, but, to 
a certain degree, wanting in height. His long, rich hair, of the 
raven’s hue, with a slight tendency to natural curls, floated 
unpruned around his shoulders, and combined with the slight- 
ness and symmetry of his general features, would have rendered 
his aspect too feminine, but for the mighty, massive firmness 
of his chin, and the stern shortness of the upper lip, clothed 
with its jetty mustache ; while his teeth, of a dazzling whiteness, 
wide apart and sharply pointed, gleamed in a mouth expressing 
iron resolution and savage force. The only physical trait which 
could be detected about his person, at all disagreeable, was in 
the voice, its tones having a strange, sinister sweetness, indi- 
cating insincerity — it would have been impossible for the hearer 
to tell why, or even to define the effect that he could not deny. 

But the captain, although breakfasting in his library, did not 
enjoy the repast in solitude. In a chair, facing his own, sat a 
young woman, who could not have seen more than twenty sum- 
mers. To the glance of a Sybarite, the charms of this beauti- 
ful being would have seemed of the most fascinating description; 
however, they might be too warm and sensual for the purest 
taste, that which prefers that the animal splendor of form and 
feature should have some rays of spiritual light mingled with the 
fires of emotional feeling. Her figure blended the rarest mix- 
ture of lithe fairy slenderness of the waist, with healthy fulness 
in the bust and bosom, and her brilliant black eyes literally 
blazed with the flames of passion. Her exquisite face betrayed 
no token of African descent, and yet her complexion was dark, 
or, more properly, of a golden yellow, and of a singular trans- 
parency, considering its tint, revealing the crimson blood at play 
in the arteries of the temples, like lightning beneath a rain- 
bow, It would have been impossible to say what might be her 
lineage. She might have been an Italian, an Andalusian woman, 
a gorgeous creature from the mountains of Circassia, a creole 


CAPTAIN CARLYLE AND LUCY THE MURDER. 


75 


from Louisiana, or even one of those bewitching quadroons that 
one sometimes meets in the gay avenues of New Orleans. 

“ How did you enjoy the ball, last night interrogated the 
female, in a slightly foreign accent. 

*'Yery well, Lucy,” said the captain, carelessly, without 
removing his eyes from the plate before him. 

“How is Miss Mary?” asked the girl, and her features 
became pale as she pronounced the name. 

“ Beautiful as ever,” answered Carlyle, raising to her coun- 
tenance a cold, cruel glance, as if he sought to inflict pain. 

Her dark eyes blazed wildly, and her very lips grew livid. 
Her agitation, and the fury depicted on her distorted visage, 
revealed volumes of meaning — love, jealousy, rage, revenge, 
every idea that can burn the brain or madden the heart of a 
passionate woman, who feels that she has suffered an irreparable 
wrong. 

Suddenly she calmed the internal storm, by a wonderful 
effort of will, and gazing fixedly at the other, said in low tones, 
stern and almost masculine, “ Captain Carlyle, have you forgot- 
ten that this day is an anniversary in your life and mine, but 
greater in mine than your’s ? Do you remember your promise, 
not yet fulfilled, made five years ago ?” 

“ I am not likely to forget it while your tongue is able to 
move,” retorted the other, with a bitter sneer. 

“ Do you intend to keep- it ?” she inquired in a thrilling whis- 
per, while the flame in her black eyes became lurid as the red 
light of a forge. 

Her writhing countenance startled even the haughty spirit of 
Carlyle, and he faltered a response of evasive acquiescence : 
“ Yes, certainly, Lucy, at a suitable time, so soon as I realize 
a sufficient fortune to make us peers of the proudest in your 
sweet city of the river Crescent.” 

At the moment, a servant entered hastily with the message, 
“ Parson Cole is in the parlor, and wishes to see you.” 


te 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


The Captain bounded from his seat so suddenly, that he nearly 
overthrew the table, and rushed from the room. As soon as he 
had gone and Lucy remained alone, an extraordinary change 
like a mysterious transfiguration passed over her pale face. A 
saddened look of ineffable tenderness, blended with measureless 
despair, appeared in her dark eyes, and she bowed her head upon 
her jewelled hands, and gave way to a passionate tempest of 
tears. 

In the mean time the interview had commenced in the parlor, 
after Carlyle had carefully closed and bolted the doors. Par- 
son Cole’s picture needs no delicate touches of the pen. He was 
a lean diminutive man, some fifty years of age, with a long 
thin, melancholy countenance, relieved only from utter gloom 
by a pair of pale blue eyes, denoting much shrewdness with a 
spice of dissimulation ; with a nose like the beak of a bird, and 
flowing hair of snowy whiteness. In fine, his profile resem- 
bled that of a grey hawk in contour, but in expression the solem- 
nity of the owl. 

“ Have you just arrived from Arkansas ?” inquired Carlyle 
eagerly. 

“ Yes,” said the other in hollow tones ; “ I have, however, 
travelled slowly, often stopping to labor in the vineyard of the 
gospel, for as the good book says, the harvest is great but the 
reapers are few.” 

“ Reserve your hypocritical foolery for camp-meetings, and 
talk like a man of sense, or I will hurl you out of the window,” 
threatened the Captain with a frown. 

“Well then,” replied the other, instantly changing his man- 
ner, and uttering the ghost of a laugh ; “ question, and thy ser- 
vant will answer.” 

“ How are your friends getting along in the Ozark moun- 
tains ?” 

“ Increasing in basket and store, I mean raking together as 
fine a lot of nigger flesh as ever you set eyes upon.” 


CAPTAIN CARLYLE AND LUCY — ^THE MURDER. 




Were you at the encampment in the big swamp 

** Surely, and they are doing still better there.^’ 

“ Were you at our council-ground on Soda lake V’ 

“ Certainly, and the boys there are bringing in their game 
by hundreds.” 

“ Does our great secret appear to have leaked out any where, 
so far as you can ascertain ?” 

“ Not unless it has in this county,” responded the parson with 
a troubled look ; “all other parts of the line, from Iowa to 
Texas are perfectly safe ; when a darkey is missing in Missouri, 
they suppose that he has gone to the free States ; in Arkansas he 
is imagined to have escaped into the Indian country and nobody 
dreams that we have an organized band, with a strong chain of 
posts, extending along the frontier, for fifteen hundred miles. 
Occasionally one of our fellows gets nabbed, but he never cheaps, 
knowing that we can release him from the jail, whenever it 
suits us.” 

“ But you spoke of this county, as if some danger might be 
apprehended here,” remarked the Captain in anxious tones. 

“Yes ; there is danger here, deep, pressing, immediate,” said 
the parson, with looks of evident alarm. 

“ What is it ? Do not horrify me with a moment’s suspense ?” 
exclaimed Carlyle, impetuously. 

“ Do not gripe my shoulders so ; ” answered Cole, moving his 
chair back, to avoid the involuntary grasp of his friend’s fingers. 
“ I put up last night with my beloved brother, parson Johnson ; 
after I had prayed a very powerful prayer, in which by good 
luck, I bore down rather hard upon rogues in general, and nig- 
ger thieves in particular, when the family had retired to bed, my 
fat brother said in a whisper, that he had an important secret to 
tell me. He then related all our plans and purposes of specula- 
tion with most astounding accuracy. It was not necessary for 
me to feign any horror, as you may easily imagine, the emotion 
was too real, and I felt it in every hair of my head.” 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


18 


“ But could he give the names of our association, or indica te 
its leaders ?” asked the Captain with symptoms of intense inte- 
rest. 

“ He only mentioned yourself,” said Cole, “ but he informed 
me, that they would know the rest to-night,” 

‘‘ How to-night ?” cried Carlyle pallid as a corpse. 

‘‘ They have a meeting to arrange a grand company of Lynch- 
ers, and some person will be there, with a full list of our 
names.” 

“ Where is it to take place?” 

“ In the Tanaha bottom, one mile from Major Morrow^s, under 
the large hollow sycamore, on the left side of a little lake.” 

“ I recollect the spot,” replied Carlyle, and he became imme- 
diately buried in profound meditation. At length he raised his 
head suddenly, and his dark eyes beamed with the light of reso- 
lution and hope, as he exclaimed firmly in commanding tones ; 
“ parson, you must attend that meeting,” 

“ I I” gasped Cole, in a voice tremulous with horror. 

“ Surely you must and shall, in order to master their secrets.” 

“ But when they come to read the names of our band, and 
mine appears among them, old Morrow will have' me hung in a 
twinkling,” urged the parson shuddering in every limb, 

“ 0, no,” argued the Captain, “ you can deny the charge 
stoutly, cry out persecution, protest and pray as at the altar ; 
the holy brethren will believe you ; and if it should be otherwise, 
at the worst, our men will rescue you.” 

“ I neither can nor will run the risk,” said the parson doggedly. 

These words produced a magical effect upon the Captain. 
His eyes blazed. His writhing lips parted. His sharp teeth 
opened like those of some wild beast, in the act of pouncing on 
its prey ; but nevertheless ho spoke in a voice awfully calm ; “I 
am the chief whom you have sworn to obey. I order it ; and 
you shall go, or I will pistol you like a wolf I” and he leisurely 
drew out a deringer, and cocked it at the other's heart. 


CAPTAIN CARLYLE AND LUCY — THE MURDER. 


19 


“ Oh, do not shoot me, captain I I will do anything you say. 
For God’s sake, put up your pistol I the hammer might fall by 
accident I’ll go — I’ll go,” cried the parson, dropping on his 
kn^s, half dead with terror. 

Carlyle replaced his weapon, remarking as he did so, ‘‘ It is 
well. I am obliged, under the life-penalty, to enforce my own 
commands, as all the subordinates are bound to execute them • 
and now be off to work among the saints. It will occupy the 
greater part of the day to reach your destination.” 

Cole hurried away, with a strange menacing gleam in his pale 
blue eyes. As soon as he left the room, the captain said to him- 
self, aloud, “ I do not like the looks of that man ; I fear that 
he means mischief. Perhaps he himself is the very traitor who 
is to furnish the catalogue of names. I must see for myself. 
Yes ; I will brave the peril of the enterprise. It is better to 
be shot like a soldier, than to be hung like a dog.” And he 
instantly rang the bell, and ordered his horse. Having armed 
himself with two heavy revolvers and a long, double-edged dag- 
ger. he was about to take his departure, when he met the tear- 
ful face of Lucy at the door. 

“ Where are you going now, dearest ?” the girl inquired, with 
a countenance of mingled fondness and fear. 

“ On pressing business, Lucy,” replied the captain, in kinder 
tones ; “ and I shall not be back till to-morrow evening. There, 
do not pout, like a little jealous fool as you are ; for I shall not 
be near the residence of Colonel Miles.” 

“ A farewell kiss,” murmured the enamored woman, throwing 
her arms around his neck, and clinging to his mouth with lips 
of fire, as if that burning embrace were to be the last, and she 
would rather die than loosen her clasp. 

“ There, that will do,” he said, impatiently, releasing himself 
from caresses that he had not returned, and springing into the 
saddle, he galloped off, without casting a glance behind, on that 


80 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


pale girl who gazed after him, weeping as if her very heart would 
break. 

Oh, say, ye viewless, spirits of the air, who preside over the 
dark dominions of human pain ; ye, who have watched the revo- 
lutions of the wheel of torture, and have seen the warm heart- 
strings, one by one, break with silent grief, or burned suddenly 
asunder at the martyr’s stake ; ye, who know all the pangs of 
life and' of death, that can rend the. brain or thrill the bosom ; 
ye, who keep a record of all the shrieks of frenzy, of all the 
moans that man’s voice can make — say, is there aught in the 
realms of sorrow to be compared with the immortal agony, the 
undying heartbreak of jealous love ? 

No such thoughts occurred to the mind of Captain Carlyle, as 
he spurred his horse to the utmost speed, and devoured space by 
miles and minutes. He paused, however, on approaching the 
prairie, and dismounting, applied his ear to the ground, and 
listening carefully, arose and pursued his journey at a less rapid 
rate. When he gained the edge of the forest, he halted again, 
and with an aspect of much surprise, scrutinized, through a 
small telescope, two horsemen, some half a mile before him, and 
bound in the same direction with himself. After satisfying his 
senses as to their identity, he soliloquized : “That is very 
strange, and even ominous ; one is Parson Cole and the other 
Bob Bennet, my first lieutenant, who ought now to be at Soda 
Lake. Can it be possible that he is treacherous — this man, whom 
I have ever treated as my own brother ?” 

He then turned aside from the main road, and sought a dim 
trail, through the deep woods bordering on the banks of the 
Tanaha, renewing again his headlong velocity, so that he entered 
the neighborhood of Major Morrow, by the middle of the after- 
noon. He tied up his horse in the heart of a cane-brake, and 
proceeded on foot to the point designated for the meeting by 
Parson Cole. Upon examination, however, he could find no 


CAPTAIN CARLYLE AND LUCY — THE MURDER. 


81 


suitable place for concealment, near enough to witness the 
expected transactions of the lynchers. At last, he thought of 
the hollow sycamore, and looking up, perceived a hole about fif- 
teen feet from the earth, through which he could safely both see 
and hear, provided he could find within, any certain support for 
his feet. Upon ascending with great difficulty, he could scarcely 
suppress a cry of joy at the discovery of a large internal knotty 
projection, where he might not only stand but sit, as on a secure 
platform ; and here he determined to remain 

A little after dark, the lynchers commenced collecting in 
swarms, until they amounted to at least three hundred. They 
built an enormous fire of dry, pine branches, and having sta- 
tioned sentinels to prevent the intrusion of strangers or spies, 
opened their proceedings by. a solemn prayer from Parson John- 
son, a massive-formed, trumpet-tongued Methodist, somewhat 
ignorant and coarse in his language, but with an honest, well- 
meaning face. Major Morrow was then unanimously called to 
the chair — the trunk of a fallen tree — and after stating the 
object of the meeting, in about the same terms as those used 
by Cole in his communication to the captain, as before related, 
he remarked that there were two men present who would furnish 
the names of the thieves. 

Looking from his hiding-place, Carlyle ground his teeth with 
rage, when he saw Bob Bennet and Parson Cole advance to the 
light immediately in front of the hollow sycamore. His second 
in command, a tall, bony, red-haired youth, detailed at length 
the plans and operations of the robbers, but did not state cor- 
rectly any of their haunts, probably with a view To the future 
sale of his secret. 

He next presented a catalogue of the leaders and members ; 
but from motives of private malice and the persuasion of his new 
confidants, he added to the list many citizens of stainless reputa- 
tion, who had no sort of connection with the bandits, and among 
them the name of the hunter, Sol Tuttle. This incredible false.- 

4 * 


82 


RANGERS AND REGTTLATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


hood excited a murmur of surprise and disapprobation from a 
portion of the crowd, and subsequently, as will be shown, caused 
bitter dissensions among the lynchers, and favored the side of the 
robbers. “ If you doubt my word,” said the lieutenant, “ here 
is another witness for all I have asserted.” 

Parson Cole then mounted a pine log, and began : My dear 
brethren, Mr. Bennet has told you nothing but the truth. 
About twelve months ago, I became acquainted, by mere acci- 
dent, with the existence of this dangerous organization, and 
resolving to unravel all its hidden mysteries, at the peril of my 
own life, as well as hoping to rescue some of these brands from 
everlasting flame, I sought the occasion to serve the public good 
and save souls at the same time, and was received into their sin- 
ful society. I have been so fortunate as to prove the humble 
means of converting brother Bennet, and can fully vouch for 
the correctness of his statements.” 

It is but right to render the parson justice, by remarking that 
he had never meditated his present treachery until after the 
captain’s harshness in the morning, when, to shield himself, he 
determined to turn evidence for the prosecution, and meeting by 
chance with the lieutenant, they suspected each other’s intention, 
and agreed to act together. 

A stormy debate followed, and the lynchers, after swearing 
themselves to inviolable secrecy, adjourned to assemble again 
on the second night subsequently. They, however, adopted one 
resolution unanimously, which gave Carlyle the greatest pleas- 
ure — that Pinson Cole and Bob Bennet should both hasten back 
at once to the captain’s, and endeavor to purloin his private 
correspondence, so as to insure the most unequivocal proofs in 
demonstration of the conspiracy. 

“I have them now,” whispered Carlyle to himself, as he 
descended from his concealment, and finding his horse, flew home- 
wards. He reached his residence early the next day, and about 
noon the two traitors also made their appearance, the lieutenant 


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“ Ah captain you treat us like princes,” exclaiuieJ the parson, much intoxicateil, as 
they seated themselves at the table, while two athletic negro men stationed themselves 
behind their cliairs, in the attitude of waiters. — I ’.igk S:d. 


CAPTAIN CARLYLE AND LUCY — ^THE MURDER. 


83 


pretending that he had just come from Soda Lake, and the par- 
» son brimming over with the simulated results of his mission. 

The captain received them with apparently extraordinary cor- 
diality, feasted them profusely with all the delicacies of the table, 
and abundance of sparkling liquors, but never let them out of 
his sight until supper, which was spread a little after dark. 

“ Ah, captain, you treat us like princes,” exclaimed the par- 
son, much intoxicated, as they seated themselves at the table, 
while two athletic negro men stationed themselves behind each 
chair, in the attitude of waiters. 

“If I treat you like princes,’^ said the captain, smiling^ “it is 
because I intend that you shall be exalted.” 

“ He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” observed Cole, 
with ludicrous solemnity, repeating one of his favorite texts. 

“ I should not be astonished,” remarked Carlyle, mimicking the 
other’s serious tones, “ if you had merely joined the wicked 
bandits for the public good, and to save some poor brands from 
eternal burnings. Is it not so, parson ?” 

Cole looked at him with a face of speechless horror, while 
Bennet turned white as a snow-drift. At the instant, the loud 
blast of a bugle was heard across the Sabine, which tended to 
increase the tremulous agitation of the guests. 

“ What is the matter, gentlemen ?” inquired the captain, in 
accents of feigned surprise. “ One might almost imagine, from 
your ghostlike visages, that you bad never heard the sound of 
Comanche Ben’s trumpet before.” 

Neither of the terror-stricken wretches answered a word. 
They inferred from the captain’s repetition of so singular a pas- 
sage in Cole’s speech at the meeting of the lynchers, that he 
must be in possession of their fatal secret, and besides, they dis- 
covered a terribly wild light in his dark eyes, which seemed to 
bode them no good. 

“Take some wine,” urged Carlyle, “it will steady your 
nerves,” and he pushed the bottle towards his guests. Bennet, 


84 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


recovered from his recent fright, drank an enormous draught, as 
if to strengthen his resolution for some desperate deed ; but the 
parson’s fingers shook so violently that he spilled half his glass 
on the linen table-cloth. 

. “ I am glad that Judge More and Sol Tuttle have joined our 
band,” observed the captain, watching the others intently. 

“ Have they, indeed ?” gasped Cole. 

Have they not, indeed ?” repeated Carlyle, in a thundering 
voice ; “ you said so last night, and preachers ought not to lie.” 

“ There, take that I” shouted Bob Bennet, snatching a pistol 
from hj^ bosom, and firing at the captain. But the barrel at 
the moment flew up, and the ball pierced the ceiling; and 
instantly both the traitors were thrown upon their backs, bound 
and gagged by the waiters behind their chairs. The captain 
then leading the way, the negroes carried their prisoners down to 
the bank of the Sabine, rowed them over the river, where their 
graves were already hollowed out, and a hundred members of 
the band stood waiting to judge, hang, and bury them — all in 
the course of an hour. 

“ Boys, we have happily escaped a great peril,” said Carlyle, at 
the conclusion ; “ the community, incredulous even at first of 
their strange story, will now believe that they have run away.” 


CHAPTER Vir. 


SOL. TUTTLE ^THE UNEXPECTED MEETING, 

William Bolling lingered at Major Morrow’s resideIi^,^, during 
several days, after the meeting of the lynchers previously men- 
tioned. His host, although apparently restless and often absent, 
especially during the night, treated his guest with the utmost 
kind affection, and without detailing particulars, spoke of a gen- 
eral scheme to regulate the country by an armed organization, 
with many obvious hints to enlist the other as a member. The 
young man, however, waived all discussion on the subject, 
remarking, that as a mere stranger, and until he concluded to 
establish himself permanently in the community, it would not 
become him to intermeddle with either private or public affairs, 
farther than what might concern his own immediate interests. 
He sought an opportunity in vain to solve the singular enigma 
connected with the Major’s lady. He could not imagine how a 
woman of her high intelligence, of such a wild, almost poetical 
fancy, could have thrown herself away into the arms of such a 
great hairy monster as this husband. He attempted by indirect 
questions, to draw something from the latter by way of explana- 
tion, but the old lyncher responded briefly, and with evident tokens 
of some painful memory, attached to the period of their court- 
ship and union. And the wife after their strange conversation,- 
on the first night of Bolling’s visit, studiously avoided his society, 
as if she had conjectured he already possessed her secret. 


86 


86 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Thus excited by eager curiosity, which he found it impossible 
to satisfy, and being in that wavering state of inquietude, that 
always attends the birth of a new passion, as yet uncertain of its 
object, the youth did not experience one moment’s rest. Ten 
thousand hopes brilliant as rainbows, and more beautiful than 
stars, gleamed around him in the sunny air, but alas I these had 
to wrestle with the spectres of darkest doubt, equal in number, 
and not unfrequently far more imposing in strength ; and if he 
sought solace in dewy slumber, the conflict of angels and demons 
was again repeated in his troubled dreams. His soul was fren- 
zied by that sweet mysterious madness, which has power to infat- 
uate the wisest of human sages, and warm the most icy hearts. 
His thoughts wandered in an unknown wilderness, an imaginary 
world, without guides or waymarks, for all the old loadstars of 
his life had set forever in the eclipse of a lovelier light, which had 
suddenly dawned on the earth and sky. The splendor of his for- 
mer purposes, the dearest memories of his mind, the fondest 
affections of his bosom, faded and melted away like morning 
mist before this fresh fire, which the love beams of two dark 
eyes, the magnetic rays of two rosy lips, had kindled in all his 
veins until the blood seemed alive with lightning. 

The force of this all-absorbing emotion appeared to have the 
will, as much as the imagination, exclusively under its control. 
He wavered like the pendulum, amidst the alternatives of different 
impossible plans. Now he determined to go at once boldly to the 
house of Colonel Miles, and there seek an interview with the 
beautiful Mary, at all hazards. But then he would recollect 
that she had never given him sufficient signs of encouragement 
to warrant such a step j indeed, his fears suggested, she might be 
unaware of his passion, and without one spark of reciprocal feel- 
ing in her own heart. Next he would pass by the place, and thus, 
perhaps, obtain a glimpse of that angelic form through the door, 
or catch her starry eyes at the window. But the probability was 
too remote to serve as the foundation of definite action. Again, 


SOL. TUTTLE — THE UNEXPECTED MEETING. 


87 


he would resolve to hunt up Captain Carlyle, to insult and defy 
him, and by this means provoke a duel. But his lofty sense of 
honor repelled this suggestion as unworthy, and nearly akin to 
murder, as the other, notwithstanding his disdainful air and 
demeanor at the ball, had not offered such a positive insult as to 
become the recognized ground for a challenge to deadly combat. 

At length the young man came to the conclusion that in order 
to while away the heavy hours of torturing time, he would 
pay the promised visit to Sol. Tuttle, and, perchance, in a few 
days, as the hunter had hinted, Mary might arrive at her uncle’s 
in the neighborhood. But singular as it may seem, he determi- 
- ned to leave the faithful Cmsar at Major Morrow’s. For not- 
withstanding all his affection for the slave who had been the play- 
mate of his happy childhood, and even his constant companion 
from the cradle, he now wished to be alone. He would not 
have any rude voice to mar the music of his divine dreams. He 
pined for the solitude of his own wild thoughts. He needed no 
sympathy from creatures of coarse clay. He would commune 
with the crimson lustre of golden clouds, and talk to beings of 
beauty in the air brighter than a thousand suns. He would find 
fresh acquaintances in the roses of the prairie, and sing love-songs* 
to every flower of the forest. He would syllable the celestial 
name, till the winds in all the pine-tops should whisper “Mary,” 
and the blood in the veins of the violet should stir at the sound I 
A little before sunset he reached his destination, just as the 
hunter was coming in, with an enormous deer on his shoulder^, 
and a great black dog at his heels. Bolling thought that he 
had never witnessed a more picturesque scene. The bony, ath- 
! letic form of Sol Tuttle had such amazing strength, that he 

j searcely bent beneath his heavy load. His dark features, though 

I rude and angular, beamed with that smile of satisfaction which is 
I kindled in the countenance of the poor man, when the successful 
toils of the day are done, and he draws near home. His dress, 
entirely of leather, was stained with the blood of the fat doe, 


88 ^ RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 

which he hSd recently slain, and some red drops crimsoned the 
grotesque tail of the panther skin, the natural ornament of his 
singular cap. A stout round-faced woman with rosy cheeks, 
expressing kindness and good humor, came to the door, with fond 
looks of welcome ; and half a dozen happy children, with ringing 
shouts and clamorous questions, ran to greet their father. 

At that moment, Bolling rode up. The family had been so 
busily engaged in examining the spoils of the chase, and congra- 
tulating each other, that they did not notice the approach of the 
stranger, until he was only a few paces distant, and the black 
dog uttering a sonorous bark, rushed angrily towards him. 

Back, Nigger,” exclaimed Sol, to the ebon-haired animal. 

How are you, Mr. Bolling ? you come quicker than T ^spected ; 
but I guessed as how I’d dropped a honey-bait that would 
fotch you.” And he wrung his guest’s hands with a will and 
heartiness that brought the blood to his finger-ends. 

“ Here, Susy, little folks, all of you,” cried the hunter, “ this 
is the fine fellow I found at the shootin’-match, the great, great, 
grandson of old Pocahontas, or thereabouts ; so you see he’s 
kin’ to us.” 

. “ I’m glad to see you,” said the wife, with earnest, though 
coarse cordiality ; “ Sol thar, has talked of nuthen’ but you, 
since he were at the ball.” 

“ Step inside, and take a seat, while I tend to yer boss,” 
urged Tuttle ; “ and Susy, darlin’, stir yer stumps and git 
supper. Mr. Bolling must be hungry as a crippled wolf, arter 
sich a ride. Cook some buffalo marrow, and bar meat ; and 
roast the ribs of the der ; that ’ll make him lick his chops.” 

The log cabin consisted of a large room, where the household 
remained during the day, and which answered the very different 
purposes of parlor, kitchen, and dining-saloon, as well as nursery 
and workshop; while a boarded partition divided off a small 
space for a sleeping apartment. There was no floor, save the 
earth, which had been first pounded very hard, and then covered 


SOL. TUTTLE — THE UNEXPECTED MEETING. 


89 


with the hairy skins of wild beasts. No furniture could be seen, 
except a few fragmentary utensils for preparing bread and meat, 
several home-made stools, and a long table of pine planks, obvi- 
ously intended to seat the whole family at once. The walls, 
however, on all sides were adorned with horns of the buck, and 
bison, and with the fur of every animal of the forest or prairie. 
Wooden pins in the logs, supported half a score of guns, and as 
many pistols, while, at suitable intervals, appeared gaping port- 
holes ready for defence in cSfee. of attack. The location of the 
building also had been selected with a view to such a possible con- 
tingency. It was situated nearly half a mile from the grove, and 
the yard disclosed a fine well of water almost at the door-sill. 

As soon as Sol had put away the young man’s horse in some 
brush-framed apology for a stable, he returned, and with all a 
father’s pride and fondness, more formally presented his various 
children, embracing two sons and four daughters. 

“ This is Mr. Jack Randolph of Roanoke,” said Sol, pointing 
to the eldest, a bright and naturally intelligent boy of ten sum- 
mers, with dark eyes and hair, resembling his father. “ Tell the 
gentleman, how you can shoot with the pistol,” ordered Tuttle. 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Jack, with sudden animation, “ I can drive 
the centre every other pop, at ten paces, and smash squirrels’ 
heads, if they’re on the lower sort of trees, just like fun ; and 
arter while I’ll learn to snuff out candles, as well as daddy. I 
wish I were a man, so I mout tote big guns too.” 

Sol then introduced his girls without much vain comment ; and 
walking to a piece of hollow oak that lay on the floor, with the 
skin of a wild-cat spread over it, produced, as the final exhibition, 
a boy-baby some six months old, and held it up with an air of 
such infinite tenderness and proud delight, that no one could fail 
to recognize this as the favorite jewel of the circle. Indeed the 
child’s appearance fully justified the parental vanity. It had a 
strange, wild, almost unearthly, beauty in its deep black eyes ; 
its hair was long, and dark as jet, and its face beamed with 


90 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


sweet spiritual smile, lovely as the sinless visage of an angel, as 
it was. 

Bolling could hardly suppress the exclamation of surprise 
that rose to his lips on beholding the tiny being, possessed of 
indescribable charms, to think that its parentage had been so 
rude and homely. But so it frequently happens: in families of 
even proverbial and hereditary coarseness, there will come occa- 
sionally, a little stranger among them, with no lineaments of 
likeness to its race ; with an expression of features so purely 
ethereal and heavenly, that one might imagine it had fallen 
down into the mother’s lap, from the stars, a gift from the 
fairies, to make amends for the native ugliness of its ancestry ; 
and the withered beldams always look wise, and shaking their 
hoary locks, mutter, “Alas! it cannot remain; the angels take 
their own!” 

“Wife says,” remarked Sol, with a laugh, “that I likes my 
boys better nor the gals.” 

Susy, with a meaning smile on her ruddy cheeks, gave him a 
sly poke in the ribs, and cried, “ Sol Tuttle, y’ know y’ do!” 

“ 0, no, not nohowsumever,” protested the impartial father, 
earnestly; “ Vm unly prouder of the hemales because they seem 
to ’semble old Pocahontas more nor the shemales.” 

What distinguishing traits of the famous Indian beauty, Sol 
alluded to as bearing a similitude to his son, Bolling could not 
imagine, unless he meant the dark eyes and hair, and upon 
inspection he perceived that Tuttle’s daughters were yellow- 
haired and blue-eyed like their mother. 

In a short space, they sat down to supper, and for the first 
time in his life, young Bolling was enabled to realize the aston- 
ishing variety and richness of a hunter’s feast. The juicy and 
delicate marrow of the bison melted on the tongue like celestial 
ambrosia, at the table of the gods. The turkeys, done to a 
charm, and swimming in their own gravy, and the warm ribs of 
roasted venison, surpassed according to his taste, any morsels 


SOL. TUTTLE — THE UNEXPECTED MEETINQ. 


91 


that ever previously had touched his palate ; while the hot corn 
cakes, browned before the fire, seemed sweeter than all condi- 
ments known in the arts of the cuisine. He no longer wondered 
that men contracted a passionate love for the wild fare and 
adventures of the frontier. 

After the meal was ended, Sol prepared himself for conversa- 
tion. A spark of mischief gleamed in his twinkling black eye, 
as he winked slyly at his wife, and asked ; “ Susy, have you heard 
the news ?” 

“ What is it V' she asked, smiling at the expected fun. 

Mary Miles is to be married to Captain Carlyle. 

Bolling’s limbs trembled, till the very legs of the stool seemed 
to rattle under him, but the hunter feigned not to notice his agi- 
tation ; and continued, “ it’s all fixed to come off next month ; 
so old uncle Jack told me this morning ; wee’ll all be axed to the 
weddin’.” 

A dark cloud passed before the eyes of the youth, and his part 
in the subsequent discourse was vague, rambling, and often so 
ludicrously inappropriate, that Sol and Susy could not suppress 
their laughter. At an early hour, to his infinite relief, the family 
retired; and he stretched himself on a layer of Buffalo robes 
upon the floor. 

As well be imagined, however, he wooed in vain the un- 
conscious quiet of lethean slumber. The wing of the angel 
“ that lights on lids unsullied by a tear,” fanned not those fiery 
eyeballs, which despair held open with iron fingers, and which 
burned with so fierce a fever as to exhale any moisture of emo- 
tional dew. He arose and walked out beneath the tranquil glow 
of the eternal night-heavens, to cool if possible the hot lightning 
in his veins. But alas ! the vision which a thousand times 
before had filled him with philosophic thought and poetic fervor, 
with nameless longings to pierce the azure depths of space, and 
wander through those endless fields, sowed so thickly with 
radiant worlds, now only tended to depress and torture his 


92 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


spirit by painful comparisons, the suggestions of his hopeless love I 
He looked upon the everlasting stars, so calm, so high, so holy, 
which no storm disturbs, and no tear-drops stain, and his heart 
said in a thrilling, throb-like sound, “ not one among them all is 
beautiful like her I” He saw red meteors shooting down the air, 
with dazzling yet brief brilliancy, and then dying out in darkness. 
“ Ah, see I” murmured the voice of his despair, “ these are like 
me, the pale exiles of heaven, driven away with scorn, by the 
proud beauties of the firmament !” And thus passed the slow 
silent night-watches. 

A little before daylight Bolling returned to his couch, in order 
not to attract observation to his restlessness, and shortly after- 
wards the hunter arose, and leaving the house without speaking, 
was absent some hours. 

After breakfast the young man observed the same cunning, 
merry twinkle in SoFs black eye, which had preceded his torturing 
communication of the evening before, as he remarked, Susy, 
darlin', it seems as how I were wrong about that weddin', arter 
all. I’ve just been to uncle Jack’s, and they’ve got a letter 
from Mary what tells another story.” 

Bolling could scarcely suppress a wild cry of joy, and his 
nerves shook with uncontrollable tremors but this time the agita- 
tion was one of boundless, beatific rapture. • 

“ S’pose we go over and see uncle Jack’s family,” said Sol to 
the delighted youth ; “ you mout as well git acquainted, becase 
I guess they’ll be relations of yourn some day.” 

With a crimson cheek Bolling assented, and the two walked 
off together. They soon came to a beautiful little grove, some 
half a mile in diameter, that lay like an island of the greenest 
emerald in the grassy bosom of the great prairie. The path 
before them ran straight through the forest, and at the distance 
of two hundred yards, they perceived a female form coming 
towards them. 

Suddenly the hunter paused, and observing that he had for- 


SOL. TUTTLE — THE UNEXPECTED MEETING. 


93 


gotten something for which he must hurry back, he added, 

“ you go on slowly, and I’ll soon overtake you.” 

The youth proceeded alone, while the woman still came 
onwards, so that they could not avoid meeting, had either 
been so disposed. All at once when they were about fifty 
paces apart, both halted simultaneously ; the female quivering 
with ungovernable emotions, while the other uttered a wild 
exclamation of surprise and delight. 

Recovering somewhat from their astonishment, again they 
both advanced ; the young man with eager but agitated steps, and 
the young girl with a tremulous gliding motion, like one walking 
in a dream. They met. 

“ Why, Miss Miles, I am lost in wonder to see you here,” 
was all the trivial greeting which William Bolling, at the first, 
either could, or dared offer, the idol of his thousand dreams. 

“ I came with my father, to visit my uncle’s family,” faltered 
Mary, with pallid lips and a timid voice. 

“ Is the Colonel in the neighborhood now ?” asked the youth 
in accents of intense anxiety. 

“No, he went home yesterday, and will return to conduct me 
back again next week,” said the maiden with more calmness. 

“ Has any thing new happened in your neighborhood ?” he 
inquired, 'scarceTy knowing what to say, and fearful of taking a 
single false step, which might hurl him down from his heaven of 
wavering hope into a gulf of measureless despair. 

“ I have not heard of anything in particular,” she answered, 
in tones of still greater tranquillity. 

He determined on a bold assault. “ It is generally rumored - 
that there is going to be a wedding in your family.” 

“ It is false I” she said in a faint whisper, while her nerves 
vibrated more violently than ever, and she drew her breath with 
difficulty as if in the agony of suffocation. 

“ Does that bold bad man continue to persecute you with his 
hateful attentions 


94 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“Alas 1 that it is so I” she sighed with unutterable 
anguish. 

“ May not his importunities and the persuasions of your father 
at length prevail to make you his bride inquired the young 
man with a countenance of inexpressible emotion. 

“ Never !” she exclaimed, in tones of startling energy, never I 
I would rather die 1’^ and she reeled, as if about to fall upon the 
earth. 

The youth caught her hand for the purpose of support, but 
the thrilling contact produced other far more magical effects. 
All the blood before apparently freezing at the young girPs heart, 
suddenly flowed back to her face in streams of burning crimson. 
Her rosy lips parted slightly, and the tears gathered in her 
dark brilliant eyes, like luminous mist before the stars. 

The result was equally powerful, and as immediate with her 
lover. A bright flash of amethystine flame passed before his 
sight, as on the day of their first meeting in the tumult of the 
tempest. A torrent of magnetic fire seemed to issue from 
her trembling fingers, and electrified all his nerves. It tin- 
gled in his ears, throbbed in his heart, thrilled through his 
brain, and found utterance in his tongue ; “ 0, Mary, I love 
you I” 

And then he poured forth that everlasting language of pas- 
sion and youth, which no pen needs repeat, because the whole 
world has it already by heart, burning breath coined into music, 
sighs of pain sweeter than all other pleasure, wild, winged words 
that shall roll their echoes in the memory forever, figures of fire, 
sparkling images that glitter like stars. 

He paused for an answer, and a faint dying whisper from the 
fragrant breath, through the ringlets of raven hair on his bosom 
answered “ Yes.” 

And thus was their young love plighted there, in that isle of 
evergreens, in the great prairie, on the farthest verge of civiliza- 
tion. The wild winds sung above them in the pinetops. The 



And thus was their young love plighted tliere, in that isle of evergreens, in the great 
prairie, on the farthest verge of civilization. The wild winds sung above them in the 
pinetops. The gay birds warbled their morning melodies. The vines overhead dropped 
(lowers of delicate perfume upon their hair. The red deer glanced at tiie*n from leafy 
l)owers with timid eyes, and all nature seemetl to promise a happy bridal ! — Pagk 94. 




'I l' 



SOL. TUTTLE — THE UNEXPECTED MEETING. 


96 


gay birds warbled tbeir morning melodies. The vines overhead 
dropped flowers of delicate perfume upon their hair. The red 
deer glanced at them from leafy bowers with timid eyes, and all 
nature seemed to promise a happy bridal ! 


CHAPTER VIII. 


UNCLE JACK 

After the tempestuous tumult of the storm in summer, when 
the roar of the wind, the rush of the waters, the rattle of the 
hurtling hail, the reverberating peals from the trumpet of thunder 
have died away among the distant mountains, there comes a 
delicious calm, the rarest mixture of light and music, combining 
all that is most bewitching to the eye in the one, with all that 
can enchant the ear in the other ; as the rainbow-tinted rays of 
the sun, soft as the lustre of evening clouds, smile through the 
trees, shedding their large drops of liquid pearl-like tears, and 
the forest murmurs, once more, with the glad voices of bees, and 
birds, and fluttering insects. 

Thus when the tempest of purest passion had passed, the throb- 
bing rupture ofhearts breaking with their own excess of bliss, the 
lightning flashes of feeling that shook every nerve, and thrilled 
to the burning ends of their fingers, the lovers experienced a 
holy tranquillity, a consciousness of perfect and perpetual joy that 
appeared to realize the beatitude of heaven on earth, and then 
followed the brief question, answered by the eyes more than by 
the lips,, the murmured protestation, the ardent and oft-repeated 
vow of eternal fidelity, the term of endearment breathed in quiv- 
ering sighs, and the nameless nothings of voice, look and gesture, 
which are yet everything to the sense and imagination of the 
soul, in this its new world, awakened to delights and perceptions 


UNCLE JACK. 


9t 


of bright analogy, of which, it had never before even so much as 
dreamed. 

Mary was the first to rouse herself from the overpowering 
trance, and withdrawing her fairy form from the young man’s 
involuntary embrace, she gazed upon his visage with timid 
modesty, it is true, but with a countenance of unwavering assu- 
rance in his faith and infinite fondness, while he returned the 
look with boundless ardor. That would have been the moment 
for a painter to have sketched their likeness. The contrast of 
figure and features intensified the beauty of both ; and the soft 
sunlight of the morning, streaming on their animated faces, 
through the whispering leaves and purple vine-blossoms, above 
their heads, transfigured them till they looked like beings of 
another world, angels of immortal youth and endless charms, or 
gay creatures of the upper air, such as in the lustre of the 
starlight live, or “ play among the plighted clouds.” 

The form of the young girl, now on the verge of her sixteenth 
summer, though apparently taller than it was in reality, from 
the slenderness of her waist, presented only the medial height 
of womanhood, and seemed animated in every finely chiselled 
limb with the spirit of life and health. Her small exquisitely 
shaped head was crowned with hair, softer than silk and black 
as midnight ; but although dark-eyed with long raven lashes, as 
if to veil the light of those large dreamy orbs, her complexion 
seen on the neck, bosom, and even little lovely hands, looked 
white as driven snow, while the moist divine tints of the red 
rose appeared on her full round lips and faultless cheek. It is 
impossible to imagine the effect of such a combination ; the dark 
eyes, dark hair, the dazzling whiteness of the skin, and the rosy 
hue of the sweet mouth and cheeks. While standing silent in 
an attitude of thought, she might have been mistaken for some 
inimitable piece of Grecian statuary, carved in snowy alabaster, 
with the cheek and lips tinged by soft vermilion. 

The youth was tall, elegantly shaped, with an appearance of 


98 


RANGERS Ajfb REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


much strength, and still greater activity. His forehead at once, 
broad, massive, and soaring, denoted a well balanced intellect ; 
while his features beaming with the ruddy hues of health, 
expressed honor, sincerity and iron firmness of purpose. His 
brave blue eyes, vivid and penetrating, indicated, perhaps, too 
much pride, but their haughty fires, of which T have just spoken, 
were softened by the love-light, that radiated from their flashing 
pupils. 

“We must end this lengthy interview, it will cause surprise 
and observation,” remarked Mary blushing, as her mind slowly 
came back from the fairy realms of love and imagination, to the 
cold dull earth of angular forms and ugly shadows. 

“ Shall I walk on with you, to the hunter’s cabin, or will we 
return to you uncle’s residence ?” inquired the youth in tones 
that seemed to deny the possibility of separate locomotion to 
either of them if parted. 

• “We had better go on to the hunter’s,” murmured Mary ; “ as 
that was the point of my destination when I met you.” 

On reaching the cabin, Sol hailed them cordially, observing 
with the old twinkle of mischief in his black eye, “ Mr. Bolling 
I ax yer pardon, but I could not find the article what I wanted 
and whurfore I jist raout as well wait fur you. Ah I Mary, you 
don’t know what a curious chap this here young fellow is. I 
spect he must be a gastronemer, fur he gazed all last night at 
the stars, like mad, and I think hq called one of them by yer 
name too. That beat me all holler. I had heerd myself of 
some tarnal fine old gentleman and ladies up thar in the sky. 
such as Jupiter, Mars, and Saturday, parfec’ fire-eaters. I 
could tell the sweet wench Yenusby sight, and I had lamed from 
the almanac, thar war a heap of wild varmints runnin’ in the 
range somewhar in heaven, sich as the scorpion, the lion, 
the dog-star, the big bar and her cub, and lots of fish in the 
milky-way ; but I wish I may be chawed up by catamounts, if 
I knowed thar war one called Mary I” 


UNCLE JACK. 


99 


The girl turned red as a southern sunset, and Bolling gave the 
hunter a look of mingled wrath and entreaty, The latter with 
a half suppressed titter, desisted from his intended torture, and 
the conversation rambled over a wide field of indifferent subjects. 

Finally, the young girl remarked that she must not pfotract 
her visit longer, as she had promised to be back at her uncle’s 
before dinner, and the family would b# uneasy, if she did not 
keep her word. “ I should like to cumpaninate you home,’* 
remarked Sol, with affected seriousness, “ as thar is a big 
painter about ; I seed his track this mornin’, and they say as how 
the critter is powerful fond of gal-meat, but I’ve pressin’ busi- 
ness, and so you’ll have to put up with the protection of Mr. 
Bolling, and perhaps he’ll tell you whar to look for the new star, 
he seed last night, though he seemed to be mighty ’fraid he 
couldn’t get it.” 

To cover the scene of blushes and confusion, caused by the hun- 
ter’s ill-timed drollery, his wife brought forwards the bright-eyed 
baby, observing with an air of immeasurable vanity, “ O, Mary, 
you haven’t noticed how it grows, and gits prittier every day, 
as if it were bran new each mornin’ 1 thar darlin’ sweet, go to 
the lady, bless its little soul, see as how it knows you !” 

The beautiful child did, indeed, appear to recognize the young 
girl. A smile like starlight, such as comes only from innocent 
hearts, before they have caught one stain of contagion from this 
world of sin, beamed on .its angelic features, and it stretched 
forth its small hands as if to greet an old acquaintance. 

Mary received it fondly into her arms, smoothed its raven curls, 
and baptized its little velvet lips with a rain of affectionate 
kisses, and then handed the lovely boy back to its mother. 
William Bolling took the child from her bosom, and repeated 
the process with equal fervor. 

“You won’t leave one of Mary’s kisses on his mouth,” said the 
hunter in a tone of much solemnity. The youth restored the 
babe to the maternal arms feeling at the same time a strong 


100 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


temptation to knock the jester down, but when he turned to 
Sol, his tongue was thrust out into the left cheek with an 
expression so irresistibly comical, and the funny twinkle danced 
so merrily in his eye, that even Bolling, notwithstanding his 
rage aid mortification, could not keep from smiling. 

The lovers then proceeded on their way. They repassed in 
silence, but with wildl;^ throbbing hearts, the scene of their 
morning’s interview. Should they linger on earth a thousand 
ages, neither of them would ever forget that spot, while mem- 
ory might hold even the faintest trace of departed years. 
Henceforth, and for evermore, it was consecrated ground, a 
holy shrine for the pilgrimage of thought, an immortal Mecca of 
the mind, a purple paradise, where the angel of earliest Love had 
made its advent in their young and yearning souls ; and never 
more, no never more, on earth, would another tree of the forest 
or garden, for their eyes, bear such golden blossoms, as that wild 
vine of the deep Texan woods, which flung down its dew- 
dropping flowers on the luxuriant masses of their mingled hair. 
No more might the sky be so blue, or the bright heaven so near 
them. For the painful fires of passion may be rekindled a 
hundred times as ardently as ever, but the saint-like raptures 
of first love can be felt only once, and may never be renewed. 

The dwelling of old Jack Miles was situated half a mile east- 
ward from the grove, previously mentioned, as that of Sol 
Tuttle stood, at an equal distance from the same forest-island, 
towards the west. When the lovers reached the place, it was 
the hour of dinner, and Bolling had an opportunity of seeing the 
whole family at once. 

The circle, besides the parents, consisted of half-a-dozen sons, 
ranging in their separate ages, from twenty to thirty years, 
great brawny specimens of backwoods’ health and strength, brave 
as bull-dogs and hardy as pine-knots, rude, yet honest, ignorant, 
but still endowed with the shrewdness of common sense ; and 
two daughters, one eighteen, and the other about the same 


UNCLE JACK. 


101 


bright season of virginity as her cousin Mary, and resembling 
her very much in features and complexion ; while the first sister 
had grey eyes, brown hair, and the common visage of her brothers. 

The father himself, was at the least, sixty, and his locks 
looked white as wool ; but from the ruddy glow on his large 
warm cheeks, and the manly, supple erectness and mighty force 
of his enormous frame, he might have passed muster easily for 
forty-five. His countenance revealed candor and honesty, and 
although, it was whispered that he had been a little wild in his 
youth, and somewhat dangerously addicted to the phrenological 
sport of sounding the strength of other men’s sculls with his 
fists, he had long -since reformed, and was now a most exemplary 
Methodist. 

The mother was a jovial, though pious, old lady of fifty, in 
spectacles and snowy cap, with a kind, well-meaning face, 
usually veiled in blue smoke-wreaths, from a short-stemmed pipe 
with an enormous bowl. 

“Uncle Jack,” said Mary, with a slight tremor in her voice, 
and a heightened color ; “this is Mr. William Bolling, of whom 
you have heard me speak. He is now staying for a short time, 
at Sol Tuttle’s and she continued the presentation to the other 
members of the family circle. They all greeted him kindly, but 
scrutinized his countenance with careful attention, as if specially 
interested to ascertain his true character. If the fact must be 
told, although it may give an indifferent idea of the young girl’s 
art of concealment, they had previously, from her discourse, 
guessed at the secret of her attachment, and sought now to sat- 
isfy themselves as to the worthiness of its object. The result 
appeared to be highly pleasing, and before he left the house, 
Bolling was a general favorite. 

“ Mary,” remarked old Jack, “ what has gone with that dark- 
eyed feller, that come here last time with you and your daddy ? 

“ He still lives somewhere in the country, I believe,” answered 
the girl, turning mortally pale. 


102 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Your daddy thought a mighty heap of him,” continued the 
uncle, not noticing her confusion, but I didn't like him at all. 
When he opened his mouth, he looked, for all the world like a 
wildcat, and then he was so handy with his pistols, shootiir off 
bird-heads. I hate a bloody jewellist worse, nor rattlesnakes. 
It’s cowardly for a man to fight with anything but his fists^ 
onless it be agin Injins.” 

Old Jack paused a moment, and the shuddering niece hoped 
that h.e would not resume the painful subject, but suddenly he 
went on again, at a more perilous pace than ever ; “ I thought 
that my brother wanted to hitch you on to that wagon, Mary, 
but with all his niggers I'd rather see you the wife of the poor- 
est Texan ranger, what owns nuthin' but his rifle and an honest 
heart ; fur I'm certain that that fellow's a rogue as well as a 
jewellist. I know the beasts by the cut of their eye, jist 
as I can tell the age of a boss by lookin' in his mouth 
What did they call him ? Captain Sumthin'.” 

Mary attempted to answer, but if her life had depended on the 
utterance, her tremulous organs of speech could not have artic- 
ulated the syllables of that hateful name. 

“ Captain Carlyle,” suggested her youngest cousin, the dark- 
eyed Flora. 

“Aye, that's it,” said the father; “captain of robbers I 
reckon ; if he ever shows his fop's face in these diggins, I’ll wring 
his neck like a rooster’s. That is, I would if I wur not in the 
church,” he added correcting himself. 

“ And I’ll do it,” thundered the oldest son, Bill, “ church or 
no church, if he pesters Mary agin.” 

In order to relieve the maiden from her embarrassment, which 
increased every moment, Bolling took his leave, with the 
promise that he would visit the family as frequently as possible, 
while he remained in the neighborhood, in accordance with their 
general and urgent solicitation. 

As soon as he had gone, the circle resounded with warm eulo- 


UNCLE JACK. 


103 


gies on his beauty, his frank countenance, and pleasing manners. 
“ Eh I Mary, this chap will do,” said old Jack, his red face 
beaming with a glow of enthusiasm ; “ he’s worth a dozen 
sich proud puppies as the tother. 

What brave ^es I” exclaimed Bill ; “ he looks as if he 
mout undertake battle with an old he-wolf without wea- 
pons I” 

“ What a fine form I” cried the mother, “ and what a hand- 
some face I” added Margaret. As for the pretty Flora she 
made no remark at the time, but steadily watched with her 
eager black eyes the delighted and blushing features of her 
cousin. A few minutes afterwards, these went out of the door 
as if they mutually desired a private interview 

Is that the young man who saved you from the robbers ?” 
inquired Flora. For those two cousins had never yet had any 
secrets which they did not share in common. 

“The same,” replied Mary. 

“ Oh I cousin, how you must love him.” 

“I do I I do I I love him better than my own life, more 
than words can express, more than music might sing in its 
divinest songs,” murmured Mary, throwing herself into her sweet 
friend’s arms, and shedding tears of passionate love more precious 
than Indian pearls. 

0 delightful confidence of the young trustful heart I that 
knows not how to doubt, and in its guileless inexperience fears 
no treachery. That can pour out all, even the maddest myste- 
ries of the bosom, into the sympathising ear of equal innocence 
and friendship, and divide its dearest bliss and darkest sorrow 
with another, that double self, which once departed, it shall 
never, no never, find again. 

“ Does he love you, Mary ? I know he does,” said Flora, with 
radiant dew drops also sparkling in her dai’k eyes. 

“ He says so, I hope so,” was the whispered answer. 

“But will vour father consent ?” 


104 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Never, I am afraid,^’ responded the other mournfully. 

“ Then I would run away with him, that I would,” suggested 
Flora in a determined voice. “ I would never speak again to 
that awfully odious Captain. The mean villain ! to want a girl 
for his wife who he well knows despises the vg^y ground he wafks 
upon.” 

“ I must not be undutiful to my father, if I can by any rea- 
sonable means avoid it,” afl&rmed Mary solemnly ; “ since the 
death of my poor mother, he has no onff in the world but me, 
and he too, is very unhappy.” 

“ But if he loves you as a parent should, if he desires your 
welfare, why does he not banish from his house, that abomina- 
ble bandit ?” argued Flora. 

“ Alas, by some strange mystery, what it may be I cannot so 
much as imagine, his reputation and even his life are in Car- 
lyle’s power.” 

Mary,” asked the other earnestly, have you really no idea 
what the mystery is, that you have just mentioned ?” 

“Not in the least.” 

“ Have you the courage to learn ?” inquired Flora, in quiver- 
ing tones. 

“ Tell me, speak at once I do not kill me with anxiety, if you 
are informed on the subject,” cried Mary, seizing her arm with a 
wild gesture, and looking down into her eyes, as if she would 
sound the secret depths of her soul. 

“ I fear that my uncle, too, belongs to the black band,” said 
Flora in a faint whisper. 

Mary started as if stunned by a blow, and then her eyes 
flashed with sudden anger, as she cried ; “ this charge from you, 
cousin, I never could have expected against my kind-hearted 
father, who has educated you with the same care that he has 
bestowed upon me, and has ever treated you as his own daughter. 
We have played together in childhood, slept in the same bed, 
and learned virtue, goodness, and truth, out of the same 


UNCLE JACK. 


105 


books, and I love you as a sister ; but never again speak a 
word against my father, if you would retain even my friend- 
ship I” 

“ I told you for your own good,” said Flora compassionately, 
“ and what is more, your uncle and all your cousins think exactly 
as I do.” 

This announcement staggered even the stubborn incredulity of 
Mary, and she exclaimed, “ forgive my harsh language, dearest 
Flora, I am sure you would not willingly wound me ; lam nearly 
distracted with uncertainty, and scarcely conscious of what I think 
or say. However, 1 can never beHeve that my father is dishon- 
est ; and if I were once fairly convinced, there would remain 
nothing for me to do but to die !” 

And break your true love’s heart,” suggested Flora. 

What, do you suppose that he, the son of a noble family, 
the heir of a lofty name, himself the perfect ideal of honesty and 
honor, would wed an outcast, a pariah, the child of a common 
robber ?” exclaimed Mary, with alarming animation. 

“ Yes,” answered the other, “ genuine love demands neither 
fame nor fortune, neither respectability in friends nor stainless 
character in relations, it asks nothing but perfect truth and 
purity in its object. The rose is equally beloved in whatever 
soil it may grow, and the starlight of heaven loses not its divine 
beauty by kissing the darkest stream.” 

The soft voice of her cousin soothed the heart of the troubled 
girl, like the strains of that celestial music, which charmed away 
the demon that haunted the soul of the ancient Hebrew king, 
and the rain of gentle tears again fell, and relieved the pressura 
ctf thought on the burning brain. 

“ You must tell my father all,” urged Flora ; “ he can give 
you far better advice than any one else, and he loves you more, 
if there be any difference, than even his own children. Indeed, 
you are the idol of us all.” 

“ I will,” assented Mary “ but not till to-morrow.” 


JOG RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 

They rejoined the family circle, and Mary immediately became 
the mark for kind raillery on the subject of her handsome gal- 
lant, Uncle Jack leading the assault, and the old lady in the 
spectacles and snowy cap bringing up the rear, and cheering 
through the smoke of her own pipe. 

How strange is this universal interest felt by the old and 
young, by all conditions and classes in the fate of lovers. And 
if there can be anything on earth more beautiful than the 
divine passion itself, it is this mysterious and contagious sympa- 
thy, which it never fails to excite. The vision of two young 
and beautiful beings living alone in the lovelight of each other’s 
eyes is suflScient to electrify the coldest hearts, and illumine the 
withered brows of age with gayest smiles. Love must ever be 
all powerful, because the whole world takes its part I 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE TWO DUELS. 

The natural and necessary consequences of Major Morrow’s 
effort to organize his grand company of Lynchers, developed 
themselves with alarming and horrible rapidity, soon after the 
midnight meeting previously noticed. For, although the mem- 
bers present had, on that occasion, pledged their honor to invio- 
lable secrecy, it could scarcely be expected, thaf among so large 
a number, actuated by different and even opposite motives, all 
without exception, should keep the vow; and accordingly, before 
the sunset of the ensuing day, the rumor spread, with the usual 
exaggerations, like a sudden conflagration in the prairies, and 
startled the community as the unexpected shock of an earthquake. 
There were three classes affected by it, the black band of rogues 
and robbers, unfortunately to6 numerous : the lynchers, embra- 
cing many well-meaning persons, who saw no other method of 
securing their property, save this desperate resort to the furious 
force of the mob, and including, besides, all the imflammable 
elements of the frontier, men of wild passions, delighting in war 
from the pure love of strife and bloodshed ; and lastly, that hon- 
est and intelligent portion of society, who prefer almost any evils 
under the form of law and order, to the terrors that march in the 
train of anarchy; and some of these had been already implicated 
with the bandits, by the pretended revelations of Bob Bennet and 
parson Cole. 

lOT 


108 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AHA. 


It is impossible to paint the scenes of universal excitement, 
which quickly followed. The various parties in all haste pre- 
pared their arms, and held their secret assemblies, to arrange for 
the impending crisis. Even the most sober citizens never ven- 
tured beyond their own door-sills, without rifles on their shoul- 
ders, or a formidable supply of pistols in their pockets ; while the 
more ardent and reckless saddled their horses, and sought the 
most public places, to dare and defy their foes, at once, to the 
worst. The agitation was more intense, and the danger to social 
tranquillity far greater, than at any, even the darkest, hour of 
the Texan Revolution. An inroad of the Comanches could not 
have produced half such bitter and bloody results. The first col- 
lision happened in Shelbyville, and as that was the picture of many 
similar affairs, I may be pardoned for detailing it at some length. 

On the third morning after the first meeting of the lynchers, 
as mentioned in a previous chapter, the county-seat was swarm- 
ing with excited masses, consisting mostly of young men, and 
such as had distinguished themselves by their prowess in the 
campaigns against the Mexicans, in battles with the Indians, or 
else in still more deadly and desperate combats on the miscalled 
field of honor. They filled the public square, they gathered in 
small groups around the corners of the court-house, and in the 
suburbs of the village, conversing in low tones, but with flashing 
eyes and violent gestures, while the air generally resounded with 
a deep, angry, ominous hum, like the noise of a bee-hive, which 
has been suddenly struck by a volley of stones. 

The groceries, however, presented the scenes of most fearful 
excitement, and every second log-cabin in the place seemed to 
boast its altar, erected for the special worship of the jolly wine- 
god ; and every few minutes, the different groups of interlocutors 
in the streets, rushed to these shrines, for the purpose of re-kim 
dling the fires of their enthusiasm and wrath. 

Among the most conspicuous of the desperadoes present, were 
three young brothers by the name of Minton, the nephews of the 


THE TWO DUELS. 


109 


famous Major Morrow, children of his twin-sister, and demon- 
strating their relationship to the chief of the lynchers, by forms 
of strength and souls of thoughtless daring, not at all inferior to 
his own. For, although, the oldest of these hopeful youths had 
barely numbered twenty-four summers, and the youngest but 
twenty, each one had already slain his man, the first, in a duel 
with rifles, the second with revolvers, and the third with the 
bowie-knife. Indeed, from their inseparable union, as they 
always appeared in public together, as well as from their amazing 
muscular force and cruel ferocity, they had become the terror of 
the bravest in the backwoods, and his courage must be truly 
astonishing, who did not shrink from an encounter with Tom, 
Bill, or Ben Minton; for the hero might succeed in vanquishing one, 
but knew very well, that even then, the battle would be only just 
begun, as he must, as a matter of course, still fight the other two. 

Nobody was better aware of the fear which they had univer- 
sally inspired, than the brothers themselves, and, accordingly, in 
reliance upon this, and their undaunted prowess, they marched 
about in every direction, with an air of scornful bravado, utter- 
ing frightful menaces against all opponents of lynch-law, and 
particularly against all personal foes of their uncle. Every cir- 
cle of animated talkers broke up and dispersed at their approach, 
and the dram-shops became instantly silent when their huge, 
leather-dressed forms darkened the door. Thus encouraged, 
their friends, the regulators, assumed a threatening and boister- 
ous demeanor, which cowed, at the same time, both the robbers 
and the lovers of order, who began, at length, to abandon the 
field, when an accident occurred to precipitate the conflict. 

The Mintons were drinking in a large log grocery, which 
stood on the south side of the public square immediately oppo- 
site to the court-house door, when they noticed the entrance of a 
youth, some nineteen years of age, whose intelligent countenance, 
and rich fashionable cloth, denoted more respectability and 
mental culture than the common, coarse crowd around the bar. 


110 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OE THE TANAHA. 


The brothers exchanged a look of murderous import, and Tom 
addressed the new comer in language of rude irony : “ I’m glad 
to see you, Mr. Albert Moore. Wont you take a smile ? Folks 
ought to drink what hain’t got long to live, sich as nigger thieves 
and land pirates 1’’ 

Do you intend to apply either of those epithets to me ?” 
asked the other sternly, as all the bright blood hastily left his 
face and temples. 

“ What else ar’ you but the cussed cub of an old land-pirate 
thundered Tom, bringing down his fist, like the stroke of a 
sledge-hammer on the counter, which made the bottles and 
glasses ring again ; “ Hain’t yer daddy, the judge, worse nor 
a robber ? Hain’t he bought up all the country as a spekerlator, 
and not satisfied with that, jined the rogues inter the bargin 

“ It is false I” muttered young Moore, between his clenched 
teeth. 

I never allows nobody to give me that word,” vociferated 
the giant ; “ git yer friend, quick now, fur we must settle this 
ere matter with weepons.” 

“ You do not surely expect me to fight such a fellow as you 1” 
answered the other in accents of measureless scorn. 

“And why not, you ’tarnal coward?” interrogated Tom, 
foaming with rage, and grinding his teeth like a wild boar. 

“ Because you are not a gentleman,” said Moore disdainfully. 

“ Eh 1 you think to kiver up yer craven carkiss with a blanket 
of dignity 1” replied Minton with a fiendish sneer ; “ now look, 
boys, how I’ll ruffle the feathers of the peacock, and put him 
below the level of the meanest rooster in the barn-yard and 
he dashed a glass of brandy in the other’s eyes, shouting, “ye’ll 
fight now, I guess 1” 

The young man wiped the liquor from his face, with a silk 
pocket-handkerchief, and hissed through lips white as snow, but 
rigid as marble ; “ yes, I will meet you, when, where, and with 
what weapons you please.” 


THE TWO DUELS. 


Ill 


“ I’d like to know who would stand the second of sich a pol- 
troon as you ar’,” remarked Tom, casting a look of menace on 
the surrounding throng, trembling beneath his glance. 

“ I will,” cried a ringing voice near the door, and a stranger 
made his way through the crowd, and with a show of extreme 
courtesy, saluted the parties. This individual was a man of 
medial stature, somewhat slender in his form, but with an 
appearance of wiry elasticity, indicating the most active and 
powerful energy. His age might be about thirty, yet he seemed 
much younger, from the unusual fairness of his complexion, and 
the bright golden lustre of his hair, as well as from the 
mischievous, mirthful twinkle of his vivid blue eyes. His coun- 
tenance denoted reckless bravery, with cool self-possession, and 
would have been very beautiful, but for the sensual, animal 
expression of his sneering purple lips. 

“Well, gallant knights of the tourney,” said the stranger, 
smiling, so as to disclose as fine a set of ivory as ever glittered 
in a human mouth ; “ I am a romantic lover of fair play, and 
stand always ready to be the friend of any gentleman who needs 
such au article.” 

“ Who the devil are you ?” exclaimed Tom Minton, in aston- 
ishment at the other’s careless audacity. 

“Lieutenant Curran of the Rifle Rangers, a minion of the 
moon and muses, and a special favorite both of Mars and Venus, a 
shooter of bullets and hon-mots^ and a devotee of poetry, as well 
as powder ; at your humble service, sir, if you wish anything in 
my line.” 

“Shet yer fly-trap, or I’ll do it fur you,” retorted Tom, 
brutally ; “ are you going to be the second of Albert Moore, 
that’s the question ?” 

“ As, to be, or not to be, is the question,” said Lieutenant 
Curran, with the air of a mock tragedian, “ as I have the natu- 
ral horror of an air-pump for the vacuum of non-existence, 
I answer, without hesitation, to be.” 


112 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“Well, then, here is my friend, Mike Johnson. Fix up the 
tricks in a hurry, for I’m dyin’ to git at it,” urged Tom, with 
tokens of impatience. 

The terms being speedily arranged, the parties, attended by 
an immense concourse, marched a short distance out of the 
village, and took their stations sixty yards apart, to combat with 
rifles. The multitude, nearly equally divided in their opposite 
predilections, gazed upon the scene with the utmost anxiety, as 
'jf to divine the final result of the approaching civil war, from the 
bloody issue of this first battle. A profound and solemn silence 
reigned over the field, as the duellists stood with the muzzles of 
their guns rested on the ground, and the other ends in their 
hands waiting for the awful signal. 

The contrast between both the principals and their seconds 
was of the most striking character. Tom Minton looked like a 
great red-haired giant, coarse-featured and freckled-faced, with 
his lowering visage still more frightfully deformed by the 
passions of rage and revenge, which shed a fierce lurid light 
upon his countenance. Any one could see, at a glance, that he 
was determined to kill his antagonist. His friend, Mike John- 
son, a large young man in leather, with a benevolent face, in 
vain implored him to spare the poor boy, who was well-known 
to be*the idol of his father’s family. To every suggestion and 
plea of pity, the brute replied, “ I’ll do it, or die 1” 

On the contrary, Albert Moore was a mere youth, with fair 
delicate features, entirely beardless, and beautiful as those of a 
woman. His bright auburn hair, falling in graceful curls around 
his slight, symmetrical shoulders, gleamed in the pure sunlight ot 
spring, like fine threads of gold j but his deep, azure eyes shone 
with a calm, steady lustre of the most chivalrous bravery, without 
so much as a single ray of malice. “ I have the word,” whispered 
Curran, as he placed him in position ; “ aim low, and pull the 
trigger the moment when the sights catch any part of hia 
form.” 


THE TWO DUELS. 


113 


At length, the lieutenant called out in clear, ringing tones, 
that startled the hearers, like the sudden blast of a trumpet — 
“ Gentlemen, are you ready?” 

“ Ready,” replied Moore, in a voice sweetly tranquil as the 
chimes of a bell. 

“ Ready,” thundered Minton, in accents deafening as the roar 
of a drum in battle. 

“ Fire — one — two — three 1” 

At the syllable “ one,” there might be seen two jets of bright 
red flame, and then two wreaths of blue smoke at the muzzles 
of the guns ; there were heard two sharp peals, sounding simul- 
taneously, and the vast throng of spectators uttered a wild 
cry of mingled joy and horror, in accordance with the sympathies 
of the respective factions. Minton escaped with a slight scratch 
of the skin on his breast, while young Moore dropped to the 
earth like a lump of lead, the bullet of his adversary having pen- 
etrated his left eye. 

The victor was escorted back to the village, with boisterous 
plaudits, by the lynchers, while a few friends bore the dead boy 
to the residence of his father, some half a mile out of town. 
What a vision for those fond parents, and for that beautiful blue- 
eyed twin-sister, who loved him as her own life. 

“ Moore’s second turned pallid as the corpse at his feet, Vhen 
he witnessed the unexpected result, and muttered between his 
teeth, “ he shall atone for this before the day is an hour older I” 
But at the instant. Captain Carlyle rode up, and beckoning him 
to one side, inquired anxiously, Curran, what has happened ? 
tell me quick all about it.” The other briefly detailed the facts 
previously related. 

“ The thing works admirably,” said the captain, with a delighted 
countenance. “Judge Moore and his friends will, now, all take 
part against the lynchers, so will Sol Tuttle, and if they dare 
the venture, we can give them battle in the open field. But one 
thing more is necessary. To encourage our followers and strike 


114 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


terror into our foes, you must pick a quarrel with Tom Minton, 
their big bully, and pistol him like a dog. 

I am more than willing to fight him, and avenge the ashes 
of the pretty youth that he has murdered,” answered Curran ; 
“ I can wing him, make a cripple of him for life, or administer 
any moderate chastisement of the sort, but I cannot kill him ; 
such an act would be most unpoetical, and besides, you know, I 
, have conscientious scruples against capital punishment, as 
jurors say when they want to get released from the panel.” 

“ Such a course is dangerous in the extreme,” argued Carlyle, 
it might do iu the case of a common man ; but Minton is a 
dead shot, as you have just seen, and if you attempt the gen- 
teel game with him, you will only throw away your life, like a 
fool.” 

“ Dul<x est dcsifere in loco^ murmured Curran, with comic ear- 
nestness. 

“ Well, have it as you like,” said the captain, in a tone of 
irritation ; “ but be in a hurry about it, before they get too 
drunk. You will find them in dog Green’s grocery; and I will 
drop in at the proper moment. Hasten the affair as much as 
possible.” 

“ I’ll put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes,” answered 
the lieutenant, as he flew away to accomplish his perilous mis- 
sion. When he entered the temple of Bacchus, the hero of the 
lynchers and his satellites, were in the act of touching their 
glasses, as a preliminary to a grand libation. Tom Minton 
observed the advent df Curran, and exclaimed in a rude voice : 

Come and take a drink ; for though we laid out yer friend 
nicely, that’s no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy yourself ; 
becaze it may be yer turn next; who knows ?” 

“ Vivimus dum vivamus,^^ said Curran, with an air of affected 
anger. 

“ Do you mean to say, damn us ?” vociferated Tom, growing 
livid with rage. 


THE TWO DUELS. 


115 


“ Do you mean to say, damn us echoed the satellites, with 
equal fury. 

“ If you do not understand the language, gentlemen, you will 
have to swear an interpreter,^^ replied the lieutenant, with a 
disdainful smile. 

“ Do you want me to spile yer face V’ cried Tom, raising his 
tumbler to repeat his insult of the morning against this new foe, 
and thus to throw the onus of the challenge upon his shoulders, 
and thereby gain the choice of weapons. But quick as a thought, 
Curran snatched the glass from his hand, and tossed the con- 
tents in the giant’s face. He then slipped like an eel through 
the crowd behind him, and passed out of the door, while howl- 
ing awful curses, like an army of devils, the lynchers rushed 
after him. 

They paused, however, with some symptoms of fear, when 
they perceived, not only the lieutenant, but Captain Carlyle 
also, confronting them, each armed with a couple of revolvers. 
“ I demand the satisfaction of a gentleman,” shouted Minton, in 
tones almost inarticulate with mingled mortification and fury. 

“You shall have it, noble knight of the bloody hand,” 
responded Curran, with a profound obeisance ; “ here is my 
friend.” 

“ And here is mine,” said Tom ; “ what is your weapons ?” 

“ Duelling pistols, at ten paces.” 

“ Then, let us git at it ; right here in the square will do as 
well as any place,” cried Tom, with his usual impatience. 

“ 0, that will be beautiful,” exclaimed Curran, “ with the 
bright eyes of the ladies glancing at us through the windows, 
like houris from the portals of Paradise ; we cannot have the 
heart to hurt one another!” 

“ I wish I may bust my biler, if I don’t smash your head,” 
shouted Tom, in a terrible voice. 

“ O, you unromantic savage, you wild man of the woods, you 
hairy demon of the desert ! how can you harbor such unchristian 


116 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OJT THE TANAHA. 


thouglits ? Tantcene animis codestibus ira ?” said Curran ; " as 
for my part, I will only clip the wings of my golden eagle, bring 
him down a little lower, so the sun shall no longer dazzle his 
eyes.’’ 

The ground was then measured off, and the parties went 
to their separate stations. Carlyle having won the signal, whis- 
pered in Curran’s ear, “ See you not the devil in Tom’s eye ? If 
you do not kill him at the first fire, I would not give a feather 
for your life.” 

“ Then, let my name live in the pantheon of history,” said the 
other, with a laugh. 

Perhaps there never was a more wonderful duel witnessed, 
since men learned to rend each other’s bleeding bosoms with 
sharp steel or hissing lead. All sides of the square, except the 
points particularly exposed to the muzzles of the pistols, literally 
swarmed with masculine forms, while the women and boys, some- 
what more timid, stood in the rear, or peeped from the windows; 
and justices of the peace, constables, and sheriffs, mingled among 
the spectators. Numerous heavy bets were staked on the result, 
the lynchers backing Tom, and most of the others sustaining 
the lieutenant. 

The antagonists also seemed much more equally matched than 
in the combat of the morning ; and indeed, if any difference could 
be detected, the advantage appeared to favor Curran. His air was 
that of a fop dressed for a frolic. He kept his place firmly, with 
a smile of ineffable disdain upon his handsome features, and hum- 
ming a gay tune with the utmost composure. This amazing 
nonchalance was the more singular, as the fixed ferocity of Min- 
ton’s countenance looked positively appalling, and his fatal skill 
as a duellist had been abundantly proved in the previous con- 
flict. 

At last the word was given; and at the close of the monosylla- 
ble, “ fire,” before its final echo had died on the air, one sharp 
report thrilled the ears of the bystanders, followed by a cry of 


THBS/TWO DUELS. 


lit 


mingled pain and rage, furious as the yell of some savage beast; 
and the arm of Tom Minton fell to his side, shattered horribly 
at the elbow. The discharge of Curran had been so quick, and 
his aim • so true, that the bully of the lynchers had no time to 
pull his trigger, and the pistol remained loaded. The faction 
hostile to the mob shouted acclamations until they were hoarse, 
and no other encounters happened during the day. Indeed, the 
leaders of both parties soon left the village, and the subordinates 
and members imitated the prudence of their example. 

It has been said a hundred times, by persons who never saw 
a pistol fired, that the duel is no test of human courage. If the 
remark be confined to that loftiest sort of heroism, moral bravery, 
which consists in defying the coalesced opinions of mankind, 
in obedience to the dictates of conscience, that god within the 
bosom, and in favor of the right cause, the fact is perfectly true. 
But if the term, courage, is intended to denote the mere physical 
quality, the attribute which we possess in common with most 
animals, the proposition is utterly false. The prowess is of the 
same specific character with that of the duellist, and often not 
even superior in degree, which has made the hero and the demi- 
deity since the dawn of universal history. It is this which has 
created the Nimrods and the Napoleons of the world, which has 
thundered on the land and sea, scaled the parapet, stormed the 
bastion, breasted billows of fire and hurricanes of leaden hail, 
and waded through oceans of blood anj carnage, to glory or the 
grave 1 


CHAPTER X. 


REVENGE. 

On the morning subsequent to the duels in Shelbyville, as 
related in the last chapter, Captain Carlyle was pacing back and 
forward in his library, with an air and attitude of profound 
thought not unmixed with signs of trouble and anxiety. Both 
his memory and imagination seemed to be unusually excited, if 
we might judge by the few fragments of soliloquy, that dropped 
occasionally from his unconscious lips. 

“ What a strange destiny has been mine !” he said with a sigh 
of unutterable sadness. “ How brilliant was my boyhood, when 
I bathed my very feet in beauty, brushing the diamond dews 
from the purple broom of a hundred hills ! How radiant the 
promise of my early and most precocious youth, where the twin- 
worlds of love and poetry opened their golden gates to my 
wondering eyes, revealing the present and the far-off future, 
glittering with rainbow light, and my young soul had wings to 
soar above the summits of the celestial mountains, and mingle in 
fancy with the immortal ones, the undying names in the pantheon 
of history 1 0, what a vision then was the emerald green of the 

earth, more glorious in its lustre than any Persian pearl, and the 
heavens with their burning blue, sprinkled with gems of fire, and 
streaming with divine auroras ! But brighter than a thousand 
suns, and more wildly beautiful than all the stars that live in the 
evening air, were the day-dreams of the angel, Hope, in the 

118 


REVENGE. 


119 


depths of my innocent heart I How I flew over the radiant 
realms of science, finding no problems too lofty for the sweep of 
my imagination, and none too profound for the piercing glances 
of my intellect I How I threaded the labyrinthine mazes 
of logic, politics, and the law, and what was dreariest labor to 
others, seemed but pleasure and pastime to me I How I shook 
the forum, on my advent, with the thunders of an eloquence that 
made the very judges tremble on the bench, and swayed the 
juries with a power irresistible as the spells of magic I Until 
the fatal day, when the demon entered my soul, when passion 
replaced love, and the red light of hellish guilt threw an eclipse 
of blood over all the luminaries of the earth and sky ! 

“ And what am I now ?’’ he continued, with a look of mingled 
rage and horror, grinding his teeth like a madman ; “ an outlaw, 
a criminal of the deepest dye, a thing abhorred by men, and 
even hated by my own heart ! enveloped in the meshes of sin 
and danger, created by my cunning, at once, the victim and 
avenger of the wrongs that I have inflicted upon others ; for 
every cruel blow, rebounding, has left its dagger in my bleeding 
bosom. Oh woman I of wild, bewildering, fatal beauty, it was 
thy hand, which dashed down the gleaming cloud-castle of my 
golden hopes, and called up from the boiling whirlpool of unfath- 
omable hell, this midnight spectre of measureless despair, with 
eyes of infernal fire to haunt me for evermore !” 

He paused, and a hardened, defiant expression gained the 
ascendancy in his countenance, as he justified himself : '‘And yet 
I had no power to have followed a different path in life. What 
an idle jargon, a pale ray of metaphysical moonshine is the 
boasted theory of human freedom. Could I resist the enchant- 
ment of her unrivalled beauty, or quench the blaze in my blood, 
kindled by the fire of those fascinating eyes ? Can the pine-tree 
repel the lightning of heaven, or the powder refuse to flash at 
the torch of consuming flame ? Can the will act without an 
object ? and did not every motive of my life, every thought, hope, 


120 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AHA. 


and feeling, vanish away before the magical light of love on her 
rosy lips ? Can the bird break the diabolical charm in the 
bright eyes of the rattlesnake, or the bee forsake the honey-dew 
of the blossom ? Can the star wander at will from its shining 
way in the sky, or the waves of the sea be silent when the hur- 
ricane tosses their white foam among the clouds ? No, from the 
silver planet that is chained by immutable attraction to the fiery 
chariot of the sun, to the reptiles of our race, that writhe in the 
dust and die, all creatures are governed by the evolutions of an 
everlasting law, universal as space, unalterable as time, and fixed 
eternally on the deep foundations of a merciless destiny without 
beginning or end. And it was the same uncontrollable fatality, 
which transformed my early visions of glory into the maddening 
dream of passion, and that again into the horrors of unutterable 
hatred. Yes, I loathe her now, more than I ever loved ; but 
yet I fear her also, the only thing that I ever found to fear on 
earth I” 

Suddenly, a servant entered the door, and announced ; ‘^Mas- 
sa Carlyle, Colonel Miles am in the parlor.’^ 

“ Tell him, that I wish »to see him here, in the library,” 
answered the captain ; and the moment afterwards, the visitor 
made his appearance. The colonel was a strong, well-propor- 
tioned man of middle age, with angular, dark-complexioned 
features, and brown eyes, deeply imbedded beneath broad, 
projecting brows, and a low, but massive forehead. His coun- 
tenance indicated much intelligence, more cunning, and consider- 
able bravery, yet without sufficient firmness. He saluted the 
other, with a show of cordiality, but his thin cast-iron mouth, 
twitching nervously, and the wandering restlessness of his small 
brown eyes, proved that he expected but little pleasure from the 
interview. 

Seating himself. Colonel Miles remarked in a tone, at once, 
perplexed and apologetical ; “ You must excuse my delay, 
captain ; I received your urgent note yesterday evening j but 


REVENGE. 


121 


there was a pressing engagement on my hands, which detained 
me until now.” 

*• There can be no matter more important than the question 
of life in affluence, or death by the hemp of the hangman,” 
responded Carlyle, with a look of gloomy menace, that caused 
the other to grow pale and tremble. 

What do you mean, captain ?” gasped the colonel ; “ do 
you allude to any new danger ?” 

“ None to me, but a very awful one to you,” said Carlyle, fix- 
ing his fierce black eyes sternly upon the face of Miles, with a 
gleam ominous as the thrust of a dagger. 

“ Speak, what is it ?” articulated the colonel, with quivering 
lips, livid as those of a corpse. 

It is simply this, that I will have your neck stretched like 
that of a dog, if you dare to palter any longer with your pro- 
mise,” declared Carlyle, in a voice of unwavering resolution. 

“ How, my dear captain, can you be so unreasonable?” depre- 
cated the other, in tremulous accents ; “ you surely cannot 
expect me to accomplish impossibilities. At the present, Mary 
will not marry you. I have used every means to persuade her; 
and if I attempt force, she will certainly commit suicide.” 

“ Then, hand her over to me ; let her be mine without the 
formality of a wedding. That will suit me just as well as the 
prattled ceremony of the long-visaged priest,” suggested Carlyle, 
without a symptom of either pity or shame. 

“ What !” exclaimed the colonel, stupified with astonishment 
and horror, “ do you seriously propose to me — to her own 
father, this revolting deed of double-dyed damnation, this black 
atrocity, more diabolical than any on record, even in the history 
of hell itself — to plunge my only child into the bottomless gulf 
of everlasting infamy?” and the speaker gave a murderous glance 
at the hilt of his bowie-knife, but he perceived that the fingers 
of the other were on the pistol in his bosom, and changed his 
bloody purpose. 


122 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“You are pleased to be eloquent to-day,” said Carlyle, with 
a savage sneer ; “ and it may be very well for you to cultivate 
all your talents as an orator ; for so help me Heaven, you will 
need them all sooner than you imagine. This very hour, I will 
either have you hung outright, or send you back to New Orleans 
there to stand your trial for burglary and murder. I will 
be humane, however, you may choose which death you will 
die !” 

“ Oh I captain, do not talk so,” implored tne colonel, with an 
icy shudder, like an ague, in all his limbs ; “I swear solemnly, 
that Mary shall be your wife before the end of the month I” 

“ Very well,” answered Carlyle ; “ then you must go to your 
brother’s, and bring her back to-morrow. The danger of an 
outbreak among the people is passed, for a while ; and I want to 
see my affianced bride.” 

At the instant, a slight sound, resembling a Human sigh, was 
heard in a small closet which opened into the library. The cap- 
tain sprung to the door, but found it securely fastened. He 
then rung the bell hastily, and inquired of a bright mulatto girl, 
who responded to the summons, “ Where is your mistress ?” 

“ Gone out to walk, as she does every morning after break- 
fast.” 

“ Where is the key of this closet ?” 

“ Mistress locked up the white cat and her kittens, and took 
the key with her.” 

• “That accounts for the noise,” remarked Carlyle in a whis- 
per to the colonel ; “I thought it was Lucy, and then, I would 
have been under the disagreeable necessity of shooting her, or 
dying myself I” 

The next moment, another incident occurred to interrupt the 
conversation. The clattering hoofs of a horse at full gallop, 
resounded in the road, ceased in the yard, and the gigantic 
figure of Tony rushed through the door, revealing a countenance 
brimming with news of evil import. 


REVENGE. 


123 


“What is the matter?” cried Miles and Carlyle together; 
“ be quick, Tony, tell us what has brought you here ?” 

“ You linow, massa, that you sent me to the major’s .to keep 
an eye on his ’ceedens ; well, who should I miscover thar, but 
that Mr. Bollum, and a blajk nigger what’s name am Caesar. 
Well, next day, Mr. Bollum went away, I didn’t know whar, 
and left Caesar at the major’s. But last night a man come along, 
and sez that Mr. Bollum am at Sol Tuttle’s.” 

Both the captain amd colonel bounded to their feet, with an 
exclamation of anger and alarm. “ But that am not all, nor 
the wust,” continued Tony: “for him sez that Mr. Bollum and 
Miss Mary am as thick as three in a bed, and Uncle Jack wants 
’em to git married right off.” 

“ I warned you not to take her there,” shouted Carlyle, annex- 
ing a horrible curse; “ and now, hasten, ride for your life, and be 
sure that you bring her back, dead or alive 1 Yes, and I’ll 
accompany you. Ho I there Jim, saddle my grey horse quickly 
as possible.” 

The agitation of the colonel equalled that of his accomplice. 
He raved, fulminated oaths, and wrung his hands, exclaiming : 
“No doubt, my pious brother has managed to obtain all her 
secrets, and then the very devil will be to pay, for he is as stub- 
born as a mustang, and my sweet nephews are brave as bull-dogs, 
and there will be the proud Virginian to back them 1” 

“ Upon reflection, I cannot possibly attend you,” remarked 
Carlyle, with an air of bitter disappointment ; “I must remain, 
to learn the proceedings of the lynchers to-night, and 1 advise 
you to play the fox rather than the lipn. If necessary, affect to 
acquiesce in their schemes, and invite Bolling to return with 
you. I will undertake to find the means of silencing his pre- 
tensions for ever 1” 

“ But suppose, that the girl should be already his wife?” 
observed the other. 

“ That will make no difference. It will be only the easier 


124 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA 


task to get them both back. I would as soon wed a widow as 
a virgin,” answered Carlyle. 

The colonel hurried away, and shortly afterwards, ^he captain 
also mounted his horse, and departed. The moment he had left, 
the key turned in the door of the ^oset opening into the library, 
and Lucy glided out. But the appearance of the jealous woman, 
having found her darkest fears confirmed, had undergone such a 
mysterious and startling change, that her own mother would 
have failed to recognize the daughter of -her bosom, had such a 
fond parent been alive and present. Her visage was mortally 
pale, and her features worked as if in a fit of epilepsy. Her 
dazzling teeth were clinched upon her livid lips until the red blood 
flowed in drops, staining her bosom with the deepest crimson, 
while her dark eyes rolled wildly like those of a maniac, emitting 
arrows of flame, lurid and awful as lightning at midnight. Her 
slender form seemed to grow taller and expand in dimension, and 
the muscles of her neck swelled out to double their usual pro- 
portions ; but all her nerves were calm and steady, as if trans- 
formed by unutterable passion into fibres of steel. She poured 
out a tumbler full of wine, from a bottle on the table, carried it 
to her mouth, without a tremor, and drained it to the last 
drop. 

I deserve it all,” she murmured in a sepulchral whisper ; 
“ but not from him ; not from this devil in the shape of man, 
who seduced me from my home, and now seeks to cast me off, 
like a worn-out jewel ! 0, fool that he is, to deem after 

all which I have done for him, that I am but a weak wavering 
creature of common clay, a thing to be trampled under his feet, 
and treated as a slave, or worse still, as one of the women of his 
own country I” 

“ He talks of shooting me, for fear that I will kill him,” she 
said with a burst of fiendish laughter ; “ fool 1 madman I does he 
imagine that I would be satisfied with such a vulgar revenge, 
when I can so readily command so many infernal tortures. 


REVENGE. 


125 


agonies of ihe heart, terrors of the mind, howling furies of the 
imagination, that will make him pray for death, as the traveller 
in burning sands begs for a drop of water. Ah I he shall die, 
but it must be by slow degrees. His soul’s light must perish first. 
His fortune shall take wings^i and all his friends forsake him. 
Every plan shall fail, every hope expire, till desolate, defeated, 
poor, and very humble, he shall crawl back on his knees to me 
for pity, and then I will spit upon him, and spurn him away like 
a dog ; and fin|lly deliver him over to the gripe of the hangman, 
and dance beneath the gallows-tree I” 

A dusky form darkened the door, and a timid voice faltered : 
“ Miss Lucy, may I come in 

Her countenance instantly changed to one of the gayest smiles, 
and she answered in accents of the most bewildering sweet- 
ness ; “ Yes ; Comanche Ben, I am, indeed, very glad to see 
you.” 

The supreme ugliness of the individual, who now entered, 
would defy all delineation by either language or pictorial power. 
His broad, low, massive frame, although denoting great 
strength, and really possessing much activity, was horribly 
misshapen with crooked bones and angles, depriving it of 
all comparison with any specimen of the animal kingdom, unless 
it might be likened to that of a lean wolf standing on its hind 
legs. His face was still worse, revealing the bony contour 
of the Indian physiognomy, increased, however, to an extreme 
that looked absolutely hideous. His nose had been eaten away 
in his childhood by the teeth of some wild beast, and perhaps 
this might be considered a fortunate circumstance, removing 
what otherwise must have been a fatal obstruction to the organs 
of vision, as his snake-like leering eyes crossed each other almost 
at right angles. 

This man was, indeed, as his name denoted, a native Coman- 
che, who had been captured when a boy by the hunters, and 
brought up in the white settlement ; but he yet retained the 


126 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


complexion, the instincts, and many of the habits characteristic 
of his savage origin. 

The Indian gazed upon the smiling face of the beautiful 
woman, who had greeted him with such unwonted familiarity, 
and his countenance betrayed, at once, boundless admiration, 
surprise, and suspicion. He was at a loss to comprehend 
the marvellous transformation from her former insuppressible 
and open abhorrence, to this aspect of manifest kindness. 

Lucy addressed him with her fascinating yoice tuned to 
its most musical cadence ; I wonder, Ben, why you have never 
yet thought of marrying.’^ 

Had a thunderbolt fallen at his feet, the savage could not 
have exhibited more profound astonishment. “ Me he 
exclaimed, and his form quivered, and his eyes started, as 
if about to fly from their sockets. “ Me marry I’’ he repeated, 
as if the conjunction of such terms announced the climax of 
impossibilities. 

“ Yes,” said Lucy, “ why not you as well as another ?” 

“ Me marry I” he iterated ; “ me, the Indian dog, the slave, 
that every one scorns, that even the blackest niggers turn away 
from in disgust I” 

“ My yellow girl, Betty, would make you a very pretty wife,” 
suggested the artful woman, marching step by step stealthily to 
her purpose. 

“ I said the same thing to Betty once myself, and she nearly 
scalded me to death,” replied the Comanche, shuddering at the 
painful recollection. 

Lucy, with difficulty restrained a laugh, and asked in tones of 
simulated fondness ; “ Tell me the truth, Ben, have you really 
never loved ?” 

The hideous creature blushed to the very eyes, but he did 
not answer. 

“What would you do Ben, to win the woman that you 
loved ?” 



Tlie Indian gazed upon the smiling face of the beautiful woman, who had greeted 
him with such unwonted familiarity, and his countenance betrayed at once, boundless 
admiration, surprise, and suspicion. He was at a loss to comprehend the marvellous 
transformation from her former insuppressible and open abhorrence, to this aspect of 
manifest kindness. — Page 126. 


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REVENGE. 


127 


What would I not do ?” he cried with sudden enthusiasm ; 
“it would be for her to give the order, and I would obey it 
without question ; I would scalp my own father, slay my mother, 
or murder my best friend I” 

, “ You love me, Ben,” said Lucy, casting upon the wretch 

a look that set every drop of blood in his veins on fire, and 
deprived him of the power of speech. 

“ Yes,” she continued, “ I have long known it, and if I could 
be sure that you would do everything which I might command, 
you could at some future day, claim me for your wife.” 

The Comanche trembled violently in every limb, as if all his 
nerves were swept by a hurricane of electric flame, but he still 
remained silent. 

“ Do you not hear me, Ben ? or, perhaps, you do not think me 
sufficiently beautiful to be loved I” 

“ Oh, no,” he exclaimed, “ you are more beautiful than the 
evening star.” 

“ Well, if such be your idea, would you not be willing to 
serve me as a slave for a few years, in order, at last, to obtain 
my hand ?” 

“Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes ; say what you wish me to 
do ?” 

“ Avenge my wrongs 1” she answered, in slow, solemn 
accents. 

“ Who has injured you ?” he interrogated witn an awful look. 

“ Can you not guess ?” 

The Indian reflected deeply for several moments, and then a 
certain lurid light gleamed on his deformed visage, as he replied, 
“ I know of but one person who has wronged you, and that is 
the captain, by his love for another girl.” 

“ He is the man.” 

“ Then I will follow him, and shoot him before sunset,” cried 
the Comanche springing to his feet, and grasping the handle of 
his huge revolver. 


128 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


The woman smiled and said, “ sit down, Ben, I do not want 
him killed yet, not for several years.” 

“ Then you do not hate him,” inferred the other with his bar- 
barian logic. 

“ Yes, I do,” she asserted in terrible tones ; “ I loathe him 
more than words can express, or imagination paint in its most 
dreadful dreams of blood and carnage.” 

“ But yet would have him live ?” interposed the savage with 
an air of incredulity 

“ Yes, I would have him live,” she answered, “ but live alone 
to suffer ; for all physical pain ceases with the convulsions of the 
last agony. I must see him writhe like a worm in the embers, 
through the long torture of years, I would protract it to ages, if 
I had the power. His heart must break by inches as he has 
broken mine.” 

“ I understand you now,” said the Comanche, grinning like a 
devil at the conception of a cruelty, so infinitely transcending his 
own gross and material ideas of the most perfect revenge. 

“ And will you aid me ?” she inquired with her syren voice. 

“ Yes, in everything,” he responded with fearful earnest- 
ness. 

“ Then you must pretend to obey the captain, with greater 
zeal than ever, but take all your directions from me, and com- 
municate in return all the secrets of the band. You must meet 
me both in public and in private with the same reserve as for- 
merly, and never betray our engagement by one word or look. I 
shall allow no sort of liberty, save a kiss of my hand at parting, 
and remember, that if you fail in one single particular, I will 
never speak to you again. Now leave me until to-morrow.” 

She extended her beautiful hand, and the savage raised it to 
his lips, and dropping it suddenly, fled from the library. 

How various are the modes adopted by the rigid impartiality of 
infinite justice for the punishment of human crime. But still most 
commonlv the instruments of sin are used as the chosen and 


REVENGE. 


129 


favorite means of vengeance against the actors. The demons 
who have so long and faithfully served our guilty passions, the 
compact of hell being at last broken, turn round in fury, and 
rend their wicked masters. 


CHAPTER KI. 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 

On the night of the day that witnessed the events just recorded, 
the lynchers mustered an immense force at .their former rendez- 
vous beneath the great sycamore on the lake, in the neighborhood 
of Major Morrow's residence. An event had happened the 
evening before, which had swelled their numbers beyond their 
most sanguine expectations, and promised to give them supreme 
control of the community. A family by the name of Marks, 
consisting of the parents and six children, had been murdered, 
and their bodies consumed in the flames of their own dwelling, 
which had been fired by the robbers after the consummation of 
the infernal crime; a deed of such atrocious barbarity aS' might 
have brought a blush to the darkest cheek of savages, or even 
devils. 

The rumor flew on the wings of the wind, startling the coun- 
try like the unexpected shock of an earthquake ; every eye 
flashed with indignation, every face grew white with horror, and 
every heart boiled like a- crater, with the fiercest emotions of 
mingled rage and revenge. Nor could this extraordinary agita- 
tion of the populace be regarded as a matter of wonder, since 
the horrible tragedy was the first in which an entire household 
had been massacred, apparently without any other motive than 
the object of plunder and the innate love of cruelty and blood- 
shed. Life and property, indeed, had long been fearfully inse- 

180 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 


131 


cure. Men had fallen by the dozen, mostly, however, in duels, 
or sudden rencontres, with more or less appearance of fair com- 
bat. Slaves and horses, it is true, had been stolen, and travel- 
lers had been robbed on the road, yet usually without unneces- 
sary violence; but in this revolting case, all humanity had been 
openly outraged, in such a manner as to convince the people 
that they lived in the presence of fiends as well as felons, and 
this turned the wavering scale in hundreds of honest minds, and 
determined them to unite at once with the regulators. And it 
must be confessed, that they seemed to have no choice left, but 
a resort to the physical force of the mob, or utter ruin and exile 
from their homes and country. 

Thus favored by the general feeling and opinion, the lynchers 
resolved to throw off all disguise, invited the public to attend 
their deliberations, and thus drew together a mighty mass of 
more than half a thousand men. The most powerful pen would 
fail to describe the excitement of this heterogeneous multitude. 
Writers frequently exhaust the superlatives of the language, in 
the vain attempt to paint the fury of the storm, the roar of the 
army of ocean billows, and the crash of the dread artillery of 
Heaven : but how feeble, how ineffectual seem all the collisions 
of adverse elements, whether of fire, water or wind — mere 
material agitation, however awful, compared with the terrible 
rage of the populace, mutually inflaming each other to frenzy, 
and drowning the faint voice of reason in the deafening tumult 
of angry passion ; when every brain burns with the epidemic 
fever of temporary madness ; and every bosom holds a bursting 
volcano. All prudence, pity, and generous sympathy abandon such 
a crowd, and the animal instincts, the native red tigers of the 
human heart, break loose from the chains of habit, religion, 
and education, and rule as merciless tyrants, where they had 
previously served as slaves. Society becomes a menagerie of 
wild beasts, without a cage and without a master. 

Parson Johnson being called to the chair, assisted by half a 


132 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA, 


dozen vice-presidents, all either ministers or sworn conservators of 
peace, explained the object of the meeting, enumerating, with 
much natural eloquence, the enormities and various outrages, 
which had lately been perpetrated in different parts of the coun- 
try. 

One, Benjamin Parker, a preacher of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian sect, then arose, and moved the appointment of a secret 
committee, for the government of their organization, and the 
trial of all criminal charges. The speaker was a lean, long, slen- 
der man, with the form and limbs of a skeleton ; but, as if to 
make amends for the meagreness of his breath, nature had drawn 
him out wonderfully in length, to the measure of six feet and 
five inches. His features, however, were all in perfect harmony 
with this gigantic figure, sharing in most brotherly union, at 
once, its slimness and longitude. He had a forehead tall and 
narrow ; a face long and narrow, so that he had no occasion to 
draw down the corners of his mouth in order to look sanctimoni- 
ous a nasal organ, with which Sterne might have capped the 
climax of his promontory of noses, and a long peaked chin, that 
seemed like a second nose, which had grown, by accident, too 
low down. Add a pair of large white eyes, white hair, and a 
ghostly complexion, with the ideal of a puritanic, acid counte- 
nance, and you have the parson’s portrait. 

With a voice hoarse as the rattle of a drum, that pealed 
through the woods like the bellowing of thunder, he aroused 
every prejudice and passion in support of his motion, and was 
finally forced to take his seat, by the whirlwind of popular 
applause that hailed his sentiments. 

He was followed by Joel Dodson, a Millenarian minister, who 
affected some vague pretensions to the gift of prophecy. He 
was a small, sour-visaged man, whose very looks belied his 
favorite doctrine, and ignored even the possibility of such a 
fabulous myth as human happiness. His bald head glistened 
with reverence, unobscured by a single hair, but his yellowish- 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 


133 


brown eyes twinkled with a gleaming lustre that very much 
resembled the cunning of the quack and impostor. He 
supported, by numerous scriptural quotations, the views of 
brother Parker, and boldly avowed that universal lynching 
would herald the Millenium. His own disciples greeted this 
prediction with boisterous acclamations ; and many called out 
impatiently for the vote. 

Suddenly, Major Morrow sprung to his feet, and declared his 
opposition to the measure. He wanted no committee, no 
tedious investigations, no examination of evidence. “ Let us 
elect our commander, fix our shootin’-irons, and march to the 
death of every rogue in the county, before the rest of our 
families are butchered in their beds, like that of poor Marks I” 

This ruthless proposition was received with still more clamor- 
ous plaudits, and appeared about to be carried, when John 
Carter a raethodist preacher gained a hearing. He was a 
massive, well-developed person, with a fine head, and pleasing 
face, expressing in the bright blue eyes, and florid countenance, 
,the purest intentions, combined with great humor and even mirth- 
fulness. He advocated, by the most convincing practical argu- 
ments, the flrst motion, and showed the dangerous consequences 
of the course urged by the last speaker. 

“ You wish to slaughter all the thieves,” he said, addressing 
himself to the major, whose long, red beard moved with ire, like 
the whiskers of an infuriated wildcat ; “ very well, we all desire 
the same thing ; but how will you discover who they are, with- 
out a regular inquiry by positive and methodical proofs ?” 

“We can take them jist as they stand on the list furnished by 
Parson Cole, and Bob Bennet,” answered Morrow. 

“ Where are the witnesses that you have named ?” inquired 
Carter. 

“The robbers have doubtless assassinated them out of revenge 
for their disclosure,” explained the major. 

“ It is far more urobable, that their tale- was a fiction,” 


134 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


replied Carter ; “ and that fearing to be detected, they have fled 
the country. 1 hold in my hand a letter from the presiding 
elder of south-western Missouri, representing the character of- 
Cole as most infamous.” 

A lawyer Rider, from Shelbyville, next arose to back the 
reasons of the Methodist minister. He was a lean, withered 
specimen of humanity, with keen black eyes ; a nose like the 
beak of a bird, as if specially formed to pick holes in cases and 
things in general ; a complexion of dirty yellow, similar to the 
soiled sheep-skin of his own legal folios, and a voice disagreeable 
as the tones of a cracked bell. He expatiated freely on the 
necessity of order and method in their proceedings, and suggested 
the importance of having a prosecuting attorney, to sift the 
testimony by the tortures of cross-examination, and lastly, to pro- 
pitiate his chief opponent, he closed by remarking, that there 
was but one man in the community equal to the task of general 
commander of the forces, and he pointed with his finger at Major 
Morrow. This adroit manoeuvre settled the controversy, as the 
latter immediately withdrew his opposition, and the motion was 
carried by acclamation. 

The names of all the citizens willing to join tne organization, 
were then enrolled, amounting in the aggregate to some four 
hundred and fifty ; and the election of officers was made 
by ballot. The Rev. Benjamin Parker was chosen president, 
and parsons Johnson, Carter, and Dodson, with eight others, 
formed the judicial committee. Major Morrow was chief of the 
company, and counsellor Rider, prosecutor general of all accusa- 
tions. It was also unanimously resolved, that all other civil 
jurisdiction should cease during the reign of the lynchers, that 
they would, in fact, neither pay taxes, nor submit to the service 
of civil process, and they despatched a delegation to inform the 
judge and sheriff of their determination. Then after solemnly 
swearing all their members to faithful allegiance, the assembly 
adjourned to meet early the next morning. And thus was the 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 


135 


civil war organized, that soon drenched the virgin forests with 
blood, and clothed a hundred families in mourning. Many 
fearful scenes of mob-law have followed the frontier from Caro- 
lina to California, but none to parallel this, in the number of its 
victims, the force and ferocity of the factions, or in the open 
and outrageous defiance of all constitutional authority, which 
won for the region, so disgraced by its violence, the name of 
the free state of Tanaha,” a title it still wears, although 
the state of society, at the present day, will compare favorably 
with any beyond the Alleghany mountains. 

As soon as the multitude dispersed, Captain Carlyle descended 
from his hiding-place in the hollow sycamore, and giving a shrill 
peculiar whistle, was quickly joined by one of his band. 

“ I have them now,” murmured the robber, with a smile of 
satisfaction ; “ they have avowed a scheme of positive rebellion. 
I must hurry home, and forward a message to the president 
of the Republic, who will order out the militia, and crush them 
like a nest of vipers 1 In the meantime, you must take my place 
in that tree, and watch their proceedings to-morrow, and be 
sure, they do not discover you.” 

The subordinate promised compliance, and the principal, seek- 
ing his horse, hurried off home, where he arrived a little before 
daylight. He found Comanche Ben sleeping on the porch, and 
arousing him hastily, ordered the Indian to fly across the river 
to their camp, and summon one of his most trusty followers to 
• attend at the house immediately. He then walked into the 
library^ where to his surprise, a lamp was burning, and the 
lovely form of Lucy lay reclined in a seemingly profound slumber 
on the sofa. She awakened, however, at the sound of his foot- 
steps, and saluted him with a show of greater pleasure and more 
tranquil confidence, than she had exhibited since the inception 
of her jealousy. 

“ I have remained here without undressing, all the night,” she 
remarked, with beaming looks of love fond as in the hours of their 


136 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA 


earliest bliss ; “ I have heard such rumors concerning the fatal 
intentions of the lynchers, and was so uneasy on your account. 
What a misfortune it would be if they should break up your 
plans now, when one more successful speculation will realize all 
our wildest dreams of wealth.” 

The captain gazed at her with those piercing black eyes, 
touched with a slight suspicion, as he answered, “ I thought, Lucy, 
that you cared little whether my schemes prospered or not.” 

“ Oh, my dearest,” she replied, in tones of the most intense 
passion ; “I have been very foolish, and perverse as a spoiled 
child. I did not reflect that men demand more variety for their 
ample affections, than we poor women either desire or expect. 
But I will be jealous no longer ; you may marry even whom yon 
please, so that you keep me as the queen idol of your bosom.” 

Nevertheless, Carlyle felt disposed to doubt this earnest assev- 
eration, so different from his experience of the woman’s character ; 
but the burning ardor of her embraces, and infinite tenderness of 
her voice and manner, caused his incredulity to waver, and he resol- 
ved to simulate entire belief, and watch her closely afterwards. 

“Now you talk like a girl of sense,” he declared, return- 
ing her warm caresses ; “ I love none but you, but in 
order to retain my power over Colonel Miles, it is necessary to 
wed his daughter, and as soon as our object in this country shall 
be achieved, we shall leave our dupes, and fly away to enjoy our 
love alone, in the gay luxuries of some European capital.” 

“ 0, I ought to have known,” cried the artful woman, feigning 
to credit every word of falsehood he uttered ; “ nay, I might 
have sworn that you would never prove false in your heart to 
me ; and now I will never more harbor one suspicion 'of your 
fidelity.” 

Of these two souls thus pretending fondness, but feeling 
immortal hate, and bent on each other’s destruction, by all the 
base means of guile and cunning, which will conquer ? The 
match appears nearly equal, the chances are well balanced, by his 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 


137 


shrewdness and bravery on one side, and by her hypocrisy and 
bewitching beauty on the other. Time alone, the everlasting 
Sphinx, must read her own riddles, written on this crime-pollu- 
ted page. 

“ There now, Lucy, let me go,” said Carlyle, releasing himself 
from her arms ; I must pen a dispatch to the president of the 
republic, aDd have the militia called out to suppress the lynch- 
ers ;* they will resist I am sure, and be massacred like wolves as 
they are.” 

‘‘Then, I will’ retire to my room, until you shall have finished 
your correspondence,” answered the woman, and she hurried to 
the parlor, and lighting a candle wrote rapidly a few lines, and 
folding up the sheet, addressed it to General Houston. At the 
moment, she heard a heavy step enter the library, which she cor- 
rectly inferred to be that of the messenger who was to bear the 
communication of the captain to the government. She then 
stole softly out of the house and finding the Indian, said in a 
whisper j “ the man who has jus-t gone in to see your master, 
will depart very soon with a letter. You must follow him and 
manage to get it away, and place. this in its stead,” and handing 
him the epistle which she had just prepared, she returned to the 
parlor. 

The instant afterwards the messenger appeared in the door, 
to start on his mission. The captain exclaimed, as the other 
sprung into the saddle, “ see that you do not lose it, and spare 
neither whip nor spur, for it is a matter of the utmost impor- 
tance.” 

“ Yes, it is a matter of tne utmost importance,” echoed Lucy, 
with a strange smile. The captain then came in and seated 
himself by her side ; but he had not time to utter a syllable, 
before an event occurred to end the interview. The huge form 
of Tony suddenly entered without ceremony, and his hideous 
visage announced that he was the bearer of news uncommonly 
interesting. He had even opened his monkey-looking mouth to 


138 RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 

discharge his message outright, when observing the presence of 
Lucy, he hesitated stammering, “ Massa Carlyle, I ax yer pardon 
as how I ’spected you wur alone.” 

“ It is no difference, Tony, speak out what you have got to 
say,” answered the Captain, fixing his eyes with a stealthy side- 
long glance upon the changeless countenance of his mistress. 

” Ha ! we’ve got ’em now, bofe of ’em, too, safe aS possums 
up a gum stump,” cried the African, grinning from ear to ear, 
like the animal, from which he had just taken the liberty of bor 
rowing his comparison. 

“ Whom have you got ?” inquired Carlyle. 

“ Wy, Mr. Bollum, and Mary, just as they were gwin’ to be 
married.” 

“ Are they married ?” screamed the agitated robber, pallid as 
a ghost. 

“No, Massa Miles fotch up thar in the nick of time, and toted 
’em back home arter him, tellin’ ’em twur more polite to be hal- 
tered in thur own stable, and they follered like colts.” 

“ Are they married now ?” asked Carlyle, somewhat relieved, 
but not fully assured. 

“No, but they are gwin’ to be the day arter to-morrow.” 

“ The dawn of that day, one of them shall never witness,” 
remarked the bandit, with a look of murderous malice ; “ I 
must make sure of him this time!” and he rang the bell furiously. 

Several servants rushed in to obey the hasty summons, and 
the master inquired, anxiously, “ Where is Comanche Ben?” 

“ He galloped off a minute arter Rovin’ Dick left,” was the 
reply. 

“ That is strange,” muttered Carlyle, in a tone ot vexation ; 
“ I told him to remain near the house, and I never knew him to 
violate my orders before.” 

“ You ought to punish him severely,” suggested Lucy, in a low 
whisper; “ for of late, I think he has grown somewhat saucy.” 

“ Oh no, you are mistaken,” affirmed the captain, confidently; 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 


139 


he is by far the most reliable member of my band. He has 
probably forgotten something which he wished to learn from 
Roving Dick. He belongs to me, soul and body, and I would 
trust him with my very life.” 

A wild gleam of revenge shone for an instant in the dark eyes 
of the woman, as she answered carelessly, “ Dearest, you are the 
best judge.” 

j I cannot wait for him, however,” he whispered; “ when he 
1 returns, tell him to summon twenty of my men to meet me to- 
day, about noon, at our old rendezvous, in Tanaha bottom, 
behind the farm of Colonel Miles.” And kissing her with appa- 
rent fondness, he left the house, and rode rapidly away. 

Immediately, Lucy flew into the library and penned a brief 
note, addressed to Mary Miles. As she finished it, the Indian 
came back, and she communicated the mandate of Carlyle, 
remarking, “ you must do as he has directed, be in the greatest 
possible haste, and then, afterwards, go to the residence of 
Colonel Miles, and contrive some means of delivering this letter 
into the hands of Mary, if you can effect it without being 
observed.” 

1 will do it or die,” murmured the Comanche, as he received 
the message and hurried off at a gallop. 

In the meantime the captain had gone to Shelbyville, where 
he met the father of Mary, and the two arranged their plan for 
the assassination of William Bolling, to be consummated that 
night. The colonel, it is true, endeavored to dissuade Carlyle 

■ from committing the horrible deed, but all his arguments proved 
unavailing, to alter the obstinate purpose of the more ruth- 
less villain, who answered him in his usual vein, with taunts and 

: menaces. 

■ Let me now turn, for a brief space, from these repulsive 

■ pictures of crime and guilty passion, and seek relief in the 
i glowing beauty of a brighter scene, a vision for the admiration, 
j and almost envy, of the angels. The destined but unsuspecting 


140 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


victim of the bandits, passed the day in the sweet society of his 
promised bride. The rosy-winged hours glided swiftly, like all 
happiness, away, in that soft-murmured converse, which has 
formed, since the beginning of time, the delicious theme for the 
lips of lovers. As the cloudless sun approached his golden 
setting, the youth proposed a stroll ; and the two walked forth 
to enjoy the balmy beauty of the mild evening air. And, 
perhaps, neither of them had ever before appeared so lovely in 
all their lives. 

Their beauty of so very different orders, heightened by 
contrast the respective charms of each, so that no one could have 
affirmed which looked the more enchanting. This seemed 
especially the case, when they paused on the verge of the forest, 
beneath a tree covered with a snow of radiant blossoms, yielding 
the most intoxicating perfume, as if all its flowers were fresh 
from paradise. They gazed with infinite fondness into each 
other’s eyes, and the blue depths of his mirrored the dark light 
from hers, until their very souls seemed to mingle in the sacra- 
ment of an immortal union. Indeed, they were already wedded 
in that pure bridal of the heart, which never can know divorce, 
and defies separation. Their very voices sounded like one, his 
coarse tones having unconsciously caught the notes of her 
musical whisper ; and the divine carnation, the celestial tint of 
love on their mutual cheeks, seemed borrowed from the sun-dyed 
wing of the same rainbow. 

“ O, this is truly, almost too great a burden of bliss said 
the youth in accents gentle as the evening wind, that scarcely 
stirred the silken petals of the snow-flowers pendant above their 
heads. 

“ And how grateful I feel for this unexpected change in 
the sentiments of my dear father,” murmured Mary, with 
her starlight smile. 

“ Yes, and I will nfiver forget it, but always reverence him aa 
my own,” added the youth ; “ I cannot but love any relative of 


PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS. 


141 


yours, dearest one, when I adore the very dust that has been 
sainted by your feet.” 

“ And I will love your parents also,” sighed the maiden ; “ I 
will have two fathers now, and find a new mother on earth to 
replace the angel one in heaven I” 

“ And they will both love you as well,” he affirmed ; “ your 
magical beauty muslf bring lo7e in every heart, as the stars give 
glory to the evening air.” 

am not so beautiful, my William,” she said, with a blush 
of rich vermilion, that belied her own modest words ; “ but you, 
O, you are more beautiful than a dream of the heart ” 

“ No, my Mary, it is not as you say ; but I can make amends 
in love for all I may want in personal grates, and you, my 
charmer, are beautiful enough for us both.” 

“ I protest not,” she smiled more sweetly than ever ; “ you 
see me through the rainbow medium of your over-bright fancy ; 
but I really feel, that I have fondness sufficient to fill a hundred 
hearts,” 

" And so they continued discoursing of love, only love, until the 
burning gold of the dying day turned to silver, and then that 
changed into the soft azure of the beautiful black-mantled, 
blue-eyed virgin night, and a thousand stars walked out on the 
empyreal heights of heaven, to witness the innocent embrace of 
the young lovers, who still whispered love, only love 1 

And is there, indeed, anything on earth, or even in the sky 
like it? That miraculous power of transformation, which 
creates all things new — that burning baptism of the youthful 
heart, which admits it as an immortal member into the bright 
communion of passion, poetry, and the ideal of all beauty and 
art — that comes like the echoes of some divine voice, from the 
distant spheres, which live in light for evermore, and arousing us 
from the death-like sleep of selfishness, calls us away to higher 
and holier aims, and teaches us the first sweet lesson of sacrific- 
ing our habits, hopes, desires, our all, for the bliss of another 


142 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


being, to lose our very life, and find it again purified, exalted, 
sainted, as it were, in another soul, a second self, the comple- 
ment to the circle of our true existence, in a boundless beatitude 
of which we never before had even dreamed — to love I 


CHAPTER XII. 


THE NEGRO MEET IN G. 

On the night of the same day mentioned in the foregoing chap- 
ter, a very different kind of meeting, from that of the lynchers, 
assembled some half dozen miles from the other, in the Tanaha 
bottom, about midway between the residences of Major Morrow 
and Colonel Miles. In the purple twilight of the evening, two 
individuals might have been seen, urging their course through 
the dense and tangled forest, towards the point above specified. 
One of these was an extremely tall, slender, skin of a man, well 
stuffed, however, with long, loose bones, all of which seemed to 
be out of joint, giving to his gait and gestures an appearance 
indescribably ludicrous and awkward. His face was so full of 
adverse angles, both plane and spherical, as to defy all the cal- 
culations of trigonometry to furnish their measurement or rela- 
tive dimensions. His nose, long and remarkably beaked, 
nearly consummated a wedding with his projecting crooked 
chin, that turned its sharp point upwards, as if anxious for the 
proposed union. His forehead, low and narrow, presented two 
enormous knots immediately above the visual orbs, showing that 
however deficient this person might be in the higher mental and 

148 


144 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


moral faculties, he did not want keen perception for the practi- 
cal realities of mere material life. Add hair the color of tow, 
a swarthy complexion, and small, shrewd, deep-set eyes, of a 
yellowish brown, similar in size and look to those of a bear, and 
the picture of Jonathan Hutson is complete. The other man was 
an old acquaintance. Lieutenant Curran, of “ the rifle rangers,” 
as he had dubbed himself, with so much truth and some little 
wit. 

The two companions made their way among the mazy under- 
growth, with great difficulty; for, indeed, it seemed nearly as 
impossible for the lofty length of Jonathan to pierce the jungles 
of interwoven cane, as for a camel to creep through the eye of 
a needle, or for Croesus or Rothschild to enter the narrow gate 
of Paradise. The vines overhead were almost continually insert- 
ing their snake-like tendrils into the towy tangles of his hair, and 
if he adopted the stooping posture, to avoid the fate of Absalom, 
the roots, in serpentine coils, always managed to trip up his 
heels. But to every mishap, he replied, with the innocent impre- 
cation, “ Consarn it.” What precise import he attached to the 
words, his comrade could not imagine, but his wofully ludicrous 
visage amused the other to frequent and uncontrollable laughter. 

At length, shortly after dark, they reached a small, mound- 
like elevation of dry soil in the centre of a large swamp, which 
exhibited several indications of having been previously used as 
a place of rendezvous ; for the tall cane and festooned vine had 
been carefully removed, and an enormous pile of pine-knots lay 
in the vicinity of an ash-heap that still contained some live coals. 
Hutson hastened to kindle a bright blaze, and threw on fuel, 


THE NEGRO MEETING. 


145 


until it roared like a conflagration; then seating himself, and 
pulling off his moccasins, he remarked, in tones of vexation : 
“ Consaru it, my feet are as wet as a dead rat in a rainy day, 
and my legs as muddy as a poor cow in a bog.” 

“Ah! the captain deals out to us all the hard and dirty 
work,” said Curran, with an air of affected commiseration. 

“ And all the dangerous work, too, for that matter,” added 
Jonathan, with a sigh. 

“ There cannot be a doubt as to the truth of your last obser- 
vation,” affirmed the other, seriously; “ I should not be aston- 
ished if some of your black brethren should inform their masters 
what sort of gospel you give them at midnight.” 

“ Yes, it may happen any day, and then my hide wouldn't 
hold shucks 1” ejaculated Jonathan, with a doleful shudder. 

“I am afraid they would take greater liberties with your 
neck than with any other appendage of your body,” suggested 
Curran. 

“ I wish that I wur back again in Vermont, they have no such 
doin’s there,” sighed the Yankee, mournfully. 

“ They have no niggers there to be stolen,” said the lieuten- 
ant. 

“ They’re all too honest to steal.” 

“ I should think so, from one specimen of the natives now 
before me.” 

“ 0, I never took to roguery until I met with the captain,” 
apologized Jonathan ; “ and his oily tongue could make the 
apostle Paul himself an apostate. Indeed, he gave me no other 
alternative ; with the rope round my neck, the gallows-limb 


146 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


above my head, and the hands of three stout fellows at the loose 
end of the halter, I had to choose between instantly becoming 
a thief, or — 

“ Going to Heaven an honest man,^’ interposed Curran, laugh- 
ing. 

“No, I did not feel myself fit for the latter predicament,” pro- 
tested Hutson ; “ and so I bawled out, ‘ wait a bit, captain, and 
I’ll jine yer band.^ Then they swore me in, and I’ve served 
them faithfully ever since.” 

“ Your life must have been one of strange adventure,” 
remarked the other, thoughtfully. 

“ Consarn it, yes ; you may well say that,” replied Jonathan; 
first a clock-pedler, till my partner ran off with all the capital 
as well as profits ; then an old-field school-master, till I made 
love to a pretty pupil, and her daddy thrashed me as if I had been 
a snake ; next a Methodist circuit-rider, till they turned me out.” 

“Upon what pretext did the church dispense with such a 
model of piety and talents ?” 

“ They accused me of some small offence, a mere peccadillo, 
in fact, that I was more devoted in my attentions to the sweet 
sisters, than to the masculine members of the communion, but I 
can assure you on my honor, as a man and gentleman, that the 
charge was utterly without foundation.” 

“ I should judge differently from your handsome visage,” ans- 
wered Curran ironically, “ to see a beautiful woman drooping her 
bright ringlets on your bosom, would realize the old fable of 
Venus and Vulcan.” 

In a brief space, the sable sons of Africa commenced drop- 


THE NEGRO MEETING. 


147 


ping in, at first one or two at a time, but towards the noon of 
night they came in large dusky swarms, from every corn-field and 
cotton-farm within a dozen miles. Even the wildest imagina- 
tion could not paint to itself the picturesque and almost diabol- 
ical appearance of the scene. The white eyes, ivory teeth, and 
apish ebon features of the negroes, gleaming with extraordinary 
excitement, revealed in the crimson light of the immense fire of 
pine-knots, resembled the ghostly grinning visages of thick 
crowded imps in pandemonium, far more than human countenan- 
ces of living flesh and blood ; while the enormous gnarled oaks, 
and huge cone-shaped trunks of the cypress and black pine, with 
their Titanic limbs, standing on the verge of the circular wall of 
surrounding darkness, where gigantic spectral shadows frowned 
and flickered as the central lurid illumination increased or decayed, 
looked like a host of devils, each with a hundred arms, placed as 
gloomy sentinels to guard the infernal crew ; and the festoons of 
long moss, quivering in the red torch-light lustre, might well 
have been mistaken for the wild hair of some great grey wizzard, 
that had been recently bathed in blood. The wind murmured 
a low motirning song in the pine-tops, like the sighs of a fiend in 
pain, while the hoarse bellowing of the bull-frog, and the mingled 
cries of innumerable insects, and the wailing shrieks of night 
birds, all combined to produce a picture of superstitious horror, 
and utter unrelieved desolation. It was a spot for wandering 
ghosts to gather at midnight, for witches to revel around hell’s 
own caldron boiling over with human blood, for enchanters to 
sign the infernal compact, which sends the soul forever to the 
prince of evil. 


148 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Among the slaves in attendance were our former acquaintan- 
ces, Hannibal from Major Morrow’s, and Tony from the planta- 
tion of Major Miles. Both were in wide grinning glee, and 
seemed to consider themselves as officers of some sort in the new 
movement ; they had also managed to persuade the servant of 
William Bolling to turn out with them, but Caesar appeared to 
be ill at ease and gazed in stupified amazement upon every thing 
that he saw, as if he regarded it all as a bewildering dream, or 
the infernal imagery of some weird and wicked phantasmagoria, 
rather than actual present reality. 

At last, the meeting was organized by calling an athletic 
grey-headed negro to the chair, or more properly, stool, and one- 
legged at that, for it consisted of a single large pine-knot, with 
the sharp end stuck in the ground. The president was the slave 
of John Minton, the brother-in-law of Major Morrow, and had 
won by the superior blackness of his skin, and venerable aspect, 
the honorary title of “ Uncle Buck.” He opened the proceed- 
ings, by a speech of great brevity but very much to the purpose. 
“ My dear brevren,” he said, throwing back his head, and 
scratching it with both hands to get out the ideas, while he 
turned up the whites of his eyes, as if gazing at certain supposi- 
titious auditors in the air. My dear brevren,” he repeated ; 
“ this am a ’casion, of most misural entrust, it am one neber to be 
dismembered, and allers to be forgotten. We are fotch up here 
to unvise means fur the condemnation of our freedom, at all hap- 
hazards. Am thar any a sun of a gun among ye, what don’t 
want freedom ? He ought to be trausfuglified into a bob-tailed 
mule in fly-time, and made to walk till hims hind legs wur crooked 


THE NEGRO MEETING. 


149 


as a scythe-handle, without con or fodder, and be laithered all 
dajj^through thorn thickets 1 If thar am any one here, what am 
such a coward and cussed fool, as not to suppine for freedom, he 
can’t show his sneekin’ black phiz in my church, I’ll be horn- 
snaggled if he shall I He’s wuss nor an old coon dog what 
won’t bark at nufifen but cats, and if he wur born agin, as the 
Bible sez, he’d be sure to come out a gal. But I won’t curtain 
darkies any fudder, I’m sorter misusenfied to jabberatin, ’cept on 
speckerlogical subjecs, so I’ll let the white brevren colluminicate 
yer ignorance !” 

“ Lor ! what big words 1” ejaculated the astonished Caesar, 
with his eyes rolling in his head like plates on the finger of a 
juggler, “ I never seed a nigger before what could speak Latin !” 

“ Horumtory am the marrow-bone of freedom,” replied Han- 
nibal ; “ and that am the reason the white folks have such a 
dose ob it ebery fourth of July. 

“ Ha I” said the other with a staring look of wonder. 

Jonathan Hutson next arose to attempt the fulfilment of 
Uncle Buck’s mysterious promise. The long, lean, bony appear- 
ance of the ex-clock pedler, as revealed in the deep crimson rays 
of the pine-fire, gave him the exact likeness of a skeleton, with 
two carbuncles set in the eye-sockets. However, he modulated 
his eloquence to the right tone for the intelligence of h^ hearers, 
and touched all their passions and prejudices with admirable 
adroitness, and in this his former experience as a preacher ser 
ved him excellently, for the southern negroes are superstitiously 
fond of scriptural imagery, to which they not unfrequently 
attach a magical virtue, like forms of incantation. 


150 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Brethren, gentlemen, and fellow-citizens,” began Jonathan, 
with a wry face, as if the terms stung him, or stuck in his throat, 

“ my dear brother and esteemed friend, who has just taken his 
seat, remarked truly, that this is an ever-memorable occasion. 
It is like the hour of ancient glory, when the children of Israel 
started to fly from their task-masters in the land of Egypt, with 
the pillar of cloud to guide them by day, and the pillar of fire to 
guide them by night. They were slaves, as you now are ; but 
Heaven sent them a Moses to lead them out of bondage, away 
to the fair fields of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey: and so 
I have been sent to break your chains of captivity, and conduct 
you to the soil of equality and freedom, in the happy region of 
the bright Yankee-land, that lies near the nose of the north star I” 

He paused, and deafening acclamations shook the old woods 
like thunder. 

The speaker snuffed up the whirlwind of applause with a self- 
satisfied air, and continued, “ Yes, my well-beloved brethren. 
Heaven has commanded it, you must be free. The Bible says 
emphatically, that the bird which can sing, and won^t sing, shall 
be made sing ! Be ye, therefore, ready, and a week from to-night I 
will lead you out of Egypt to the happy Canaan of the free States.” 

“We will — we will 1 no more massas ! no more wuki nuffen 
but play ^nd kick up our heels, and saw de fiddle !” shouted five 
hundred voices. 

“ But what shall we do fur suthen to wuk in our jaws ?” 
inquired some one, blessed with a too practical turn of mind. 

“ Oh, y’ goose, can’t you cotch possums?” interrupted Tony 
with a look of superiority. 


THE NEGRO MEETING. 


161 


“But I want bread, too, fur my corn-crackers,” urged the 
other. 

“That am a fac,” echoed many more persons in the crowd, in 
dubious accents. 

“ Yes, and bread ye shall have,” vociferated Jonathan, as he 
noticed the ebb in the springtide of popular feeling. “Your 
good friends, the Abolitionists, have stowed away magazines of 
provisions all along the road that you will travel. Ye shall live 
on the fat of the land, fish, fowl, flesh, hot cakes, butter, honey, 
everything ye can ask.” 

“ Lor I how rich them Bobolitions must be,” muttered Cassar. 

“ Yes, and how filluracroppic,” added Han, 

“ But what will we do, when we get to Canaan?” asked a voice. 

“ Hev all the week for Sunday, and make the fillisterine folks 
do the wuk,” suggested Uncle Buck. 

“ But ain’t you a gwin’ to let us tote our women and children 
with us ?” interrogated another, in faltering tones, and a loud 
murmur revealed the deep anxiety that prevailed as to the 
response. 

“We can git lots of white gals thar,” cried the gallant Han- 
nibal ; “ they must lub darkies a mighty heap up ’mong the 
free States, if they make sich a fuss ’bout ’em.” 

“ But we don’t wa^jt any white gals,” shouted the majority; 
“ we’d rather have our own wives and children.” 

“ And ye shall have them, my dear brethren,” protested 
Jonathan ; “ but the men must go first, and travel very 
fast, so the ladies and little ones could not keep up, none but 
young girls, who can walk rapidly, and will not be easily tired.” 


152 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ How, then, will we git the balance ov ^em arter wards ?” 
exclaimed the dubious, shaking their heads. 

“ I will tell you, my friends,’^ answered the ready-witted 
Jonathan ; “ the Abolitionists are building a rail-road to run all 
over the world. They have already got it more than half done, 
and the rest will be finished next year ; and then they will send 
a big steam-car to bring on your women and children.^^ 

“ A steam-car I what sort of a fixin’ is that ?” inquired the 
multitude, in one general breath of amazement. 

“ O,” said the ex-clock-peddler, ‘‘ it is an immense wagon, 
more than a mile long, drawn by a black iron horse, stronger 
than all the teams on the earth, running faster than the wind, 
and roaring louder than the thunder. He breathes lightning at 
every snort, and will not feed on anything but fire I” 

“ Oh 1 Lordy, may be him am the devil !’’ exclaimed the 
wonder-struck auditors. 

“ Not at all ; he is only an iron horse, that the Yankees have 
learned to make ; and more than that, they are now creating an 
iron man, who will do all the work I” 

“ The fools I” complained Tony; “ they ort to have fixed the 
iron feller fust, and then he mout have done the wuk on the boss, 
and the raillum-road to boot I” 

“ But why don’t ’em send on thar iron boss, and carry off 
our gals and us all togedder ?” asked another sceptic. 

“ I told you that they had not yet completed the road,” 
explained Jonathan ; “the new animal is very particular about 
the path he travels. He refuses to walk upon any substance 
meaner than his own metal, and if you try his temper, or differ 


THE NEGRO MEETING. 


153 


from his taste, he kicks up his heels, and smashes the waggon 
and passengers into pieces no bigger than your thumb, or pitches, 
out of spite, into the first lake or river that he comes to, and 
all sink to the bottom. But if you humor him, and treat him 
kindly, he goes gently as a lamb.” 

Every body appeared to be thoroughly satisfied with this 
explication, and after dealing with a variety of practical details, 
the assembly adjourned, to meet again at the end of a week. 

It is in a similar manner, that thousands of slaves are annually 
enticed away from their masters, all over the southern States, 
under the delusive promises of freedom. Villains, using various 
pretexts, and often assuming the garb of the gospel, as pretended 
ministers of mercy, wander about the country, and the instant 
when they find a disaffected or maltreated servant, they present 
the tempting lure, and proffer assistance for a flight to the 
northern States or Canada. If the ignorant African accept the 
proposition, they aid him to run off, but to neither of the pro- 
mised lands. He is carried farther south, and sold to some 
unscrupulous planter, who never criticises the title, provided he 
can purchase the article at/a*fair discount. Indeed, the thief 
frequently effects the bargain with the negro’s own consent, who 
is made to believe that he will share the profits of the specula- 
tion, and that the rogue will steal him back again. O when 
shall mankind learn the great lesson taught by all history and 
human experience, and which has all the logical force of an 
a ^priori axiom, that no being of mortal mould, ever was, or will 
be free, with a soul the slave of ignorance, or servile habit ? 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 

On the same evening, as I have previously mentioned, 
William Bolling and his beautiful bride, that was to be on the 
following day, still lingered in the balmy air, repeating over and 
over again, the burning vows and terms of tender endearment, 
which both so well knew already by heart. The sun himself had 
long sunk beneath the glowing glories of the western horizon, 
but the radiant snow-blossoms of the flowering tree above their 
heads still seemed to keep the woods in sunlight, 'and the bright- 
eyed stars, the everlasting poetry of love, as well as heaven, 
smiled so sweetly, and shed such living lustre, that they forgot 
the absence of the gaudy day, and remembered not even the 
presence of the soft and silent sister night, in their deep and 
dreamy unconsciousness of all other existence but their own. 
What had they to fear, these pure young souls, in that 
first purple prime of their innocent love, which, in chaste 
unhackneyed hearts, with all their dews of the morning fresh ou 
the flower-cups of life, always precedes the hour of fiery and 
more selfish passion ? They could certainly dread no danger 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


155 


from each other, when they would rather have died, by the most 
cruel of physical tortures, than to harbor a doubt of their 
mutual and stainless purity. Nevertheless, they were in the 
very presence of deadly peril. The frowning Fates hovered 
around them, and the very atmosphere they breathed was full of 
mortal poison, as the dark shade of that Indian tree, whose 
piercing odor is prompt and powerful to kill as the lightning of 
heaven I 

Suddenly they heard a rustling in the green boughs behind 
them, and an anxious voice cried out : 

Here, Miss Mary, is a letter for you ; let your lover fly 
instantly, if you would not see him fall a bloody corpse at your 
feet !” 

The strange invisible speaker hurled a small note through the 
air, which dropped within a yard of where they stood, and 
the crash of tangled brush in the vicinity told that he was hur- 
rying away. 

Stop I stop 1 and tell us the danger 1” exclaimed the youth 
in the utmost agitation, while the maiden stooped, and with 
quivering fingers, picked up the mysterious letter. 

“ Fly I fly I or you will not have an hour to live I’’ answered 
the ominous voice, growing fainter and more far-off in the 
darkness, while a hundred dying echoes, from all the whispering 
woods, seemed to repeat the wild warning, “ fly I fly, for your 
life 

Let us hasten to the house, and read it,” said the young 
man, recovering from the shock of the astounding announcement, 
and leading away the trembling girl. 


156 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“Do not relate the circumstance to my father,” murmured 
Mary, as they drew near the dwelling ; “ my heart is haunted 
by a terrible foreboding ! Oh, God ! can it be, that he would 
yet deceive us, as uncle Jack feared !” 

They gained the parlor, where the colonel welcomed them with 
apparent kindness, but the quick perception of Bolling detected 
unusual emotion and terror in his countenance and manner. 
His features looked livid, almost corpse-like, and his fingers 
shook, as if charged with electricity. 

Mary flew to the lamp, and broke open the note, while the 
youth advanced to her side, and glanced over the contents ; 
and well might they both shudder with feelings of unmingled 
horror and alarm, at the frightful facts, which the brief words 
revealed. 

“Let your lover fly instantly to Major Morrow^s,” urged the 
letter ; “ the bandits have sworn to have his blood, to-night. 
Nothing can save him, but immediate flight, as hundreds will 
surround the house, and the slaves of the plantation will assist, 
if necessary, in the deed of murder I Trust not your own father, 
for he is privy to the plan, and dares not oppose the wishes of 
Carlyle ! Do not attempt to go now with your lover, for the 
forest is swarming with his foes, and you would only embarrass 
his efforts to escape. Keep this communication an inviolable 
secret, and burn the paper that bears it, if you would not 
endanger the life of an unknown friend, a woman beautiful as 
yourself, and once as innocent, until betrayed by the man-devil, 
whom you hate, as I do. But fear not, sweet Mary, he shall 
wed the hangman’s halter, sooner than you 1” 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


16 T 

The maiden whispered, “ I know the writer ; every syllable is 
true. Delay not a moment. Fly to Major Morrow^s ?” 

Bolliug’s eyes flashed with that strange wild light which 
beams on the face of the brave in the hour of greatest peril. 
He instantly formed his resolution. First, he snatched the note 
out of Mary's hand, and thrust it into the flame of the lamp ; 
then he rushed to his room for his weapons, but to his bitter 
dismay, found that these faithful friends had been secretly 
removed. He ran back into the parlor, exclaiming in terrible 
tones, “ Colonel, I must leave on business of the utmost import- 
ance, this very minute ; rpy pistols have been stolen, all save the 
two small deringers, that I always carry about my person. 
Lend me your large revolver.” 

“ I cannot spare it,” faltered Miles ; “ but why this hurry ? 
why run away to-night ?” 

“ I will explain it all to-morrow,” said Bolling, sternly; “ but 
you must spare your revolver I” and he snatched the weapon 
from the colonel's belt, and cried, “ now, be quick, let me have 
my horse I” ' 

“I'll git him fur ye, massa,” remarked a great mulatto, who 
had been watching the scene, with a countenance denoting deep 
and sinister interest. 

“ Then, be in haste, if you would not have a bullet through 
your brain I and I'll go with you to the stable,” shouted the 
young man, and both he and the slave ran out of the room. 

In a few seconds, the mulatto led his horse out of the stall, 
and observed, “ massa, I can't find the saddle ; I must blow for 
Bill, as him knows whar 'tis.” Then he drew from his pocket a 


158 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


small whistle, and gave a loud shrill blast, which was immediately 
answered by the ringing tones of a bugle from the bridge above 
the Tanaha, followed by the thunder of flying hoofs, as of a whole 
troop of cavalry charging towards the stable. 

“ Ha ! traitor !” cried Bolling, as he felled the mulatto to the 
earth with one blow of his pistol, and seizing the bridle-reins, 
sprung upon Selim’s naked back, and fled in a different direction 
from the point where the bugle had sounded. His course lay 
through an immense field, nearly a mile long. If he could only 
gain the dense thickets of the bottom beyond the fence, he 
felt he would be safe; but hope in his heart almost expired, as he 
made the discovery that his horse was lame, and the wild yells 
of his pursuers came fiercer and faster behind him. In a brief 
space they were close enough to begin the discharge of shots, 
and bullets whistled their death-notes around his ears, while a 
stinging sensation in his side, told that he had been already 
touched. 

“ On, Selim I” he cried, bravely ; “ a hundred yards more, 
and we’ll foil the devils yet !” and he plied the whip and spur 
with the energy of desperation. 

He had nearly reached the fence, and the noble animal gath- 
ered up all his muscular force to take the dangerous leap, and, 
bounding high in the air, his head struck an overhanging limb, 
and he fell back upon his rider. The latter was, however, only 
partially stunned by the fall, but the dying horse in his struggles 
had rolled upon his leg, rendering it impossible for him to 
rise without assistance. His doom appeared sealed. There 
remained not a semblance of a hope. The triumphant shout of 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


159 


a hundred bandits, mixed with bursts of fiend-like laughter, rung 
around him, as the trumpet-tongue of Captain Carlyle exclaimed, 
“ Now, boys, give him a shower of cold lead I let him die 
easily !” 

But hardly had the word left the robber’s lips, when a brilliant 
sheet of flame wrapped the topmost rail of the fence in a red 
wreath, like lightning, while an appalling peal, as of thunder, 
roared in the night-air, and shook the very earth. 

“ What I are they outside in the forest, as well as in the field 
thought the youth, but he immediately perceived that the com- 
pany in the bushes were mortal foes to the black baud ; for they 
instantly dealt them another volley, that emptied several saddles 
and caused many more to wheel their horses, and gallop away 
from the deadly flash of that unexpected fire, as if it had been 
the smoking crater of the infernal deep, instead of a discharge 
from a platoon of musketry. 

However, the captain, and a majority of his men, although 
taken so much by surprise, did not recoil, but returned the leaden 
hail with their revolvers. 

“ What can it mean ? who are these unknown friends, that 
now do battle, perhaps unconsciously, to save my life ?” said 
Bolling. 

At the moment, the hoarse voice of Major Morrow fulminated 
behind the fence, “ Boys, load your barrels with buck-shot, that’s 
the right sort of dose to make the rogues puke blood I never 
mind the measure I ram down a handful of powder, and it don’t 
matter how much lead 1” 

The effect of this savage order soon became manifest, as vol- 


160 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


ley after volley rolled in swift succession, and, at last, the ban- 
dits, in spite of the threats and curses of their commander, broke 
and fled in the wildest disorder, and he himself was forced to 
follow them. 

The lynchers then rushed over the fence, and released the 
young man from his painful situation. “ Who are you?” inquired 
the major, failing, at first, to recognize his former guest in the 
darkness, rendered all the deeper from its contrast with the pre- 
vious red light of battle. 

“ William Bolling,” was the immediate response ;” and I have 
to thank you, as I do most heartily, for my rescue from otherwise 
inevitable death.” 

“ You may well say that,” replied the delighted major ; “ for 
if we hadn’t been in the brush, and popped them jist when we 
did, your body would have been buzzard-meat in less than half 
a minute. But how did you happen here ? I thought you 
wur at Sol Tuttles.” 

“ I returned yesterday.” 

“ Eh 1 jist so ; followed back that gall I heerd you wur arter 
her, and I said then, that Carlyle would be arter you.” 

The chief lyncher then turned to his company with the fero- 
cious order : “ Boys, them fellers thar on the ground keep an 
awful groanin’ ; put them out of their pain, by a ball in each of 
their heads.” The mandate was instantly obeyed. A dozen 
pistols exploded, and the wounded men never moaned again. 

“Were you hurt in the affair, Mr. Bolling?” interrogated 
the Major kindly. 

“Very little,” was the reply, “I received a scratch in the 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


161 


side, and my ankle is somewhat bruised, but not so as to lame 
me/’ 

“ Is the colonel at the house ?” asked Morrow eagerly. 

“ He was when I left.” 

“ Then let us march on, and capture him. What do you say 
to it, boys ?” 

“ It would be madness to attempt it with our present force,” 
answered Parson Johnson, “ the rogues are doubtless all there 
now, numbering at least a hundred, and the dwelling is itself a 
block house, while we have no more than twenty-five men. 
Most of the party concurred in this rational view of the subject, 
and it was resolved to leave five trusty members of the company 
as spies around the plantation, while the rest returned to their 
head-quarters at the major’s, and debated ulterior measures in a 
full meeting. Accordingly the youth was mounted on another 
horse, the property of one who remained with the secret guard, 
and the main body proceeded as fast as they could to their des- 
tination. 

It would be utterly impossible to describe the emotions of Wil- 
liam Bolling during the silence of that rapid midnight march. 
All in a moment, by an event unexpected as the coming of a comet, 
and awful as the world rocking crash of an earthquake, he had 
been snatched, as it were, from the very arms of his beautiful 
bride, the night before their intended union. From the ethereal 
heights, the golden portals of his promised paradise, on the 
verge of the blissful bowers, within view of the elysian fields, he 
had been suddenly hurled down into the depths of unutterable 
darkness, w^hile the bottomless gulf of despair, rayless, endless. 


162 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHJi. 


everlasting, seemed to open like the fiery fissure of a volcano, 
between his bosom and that of his beloved, the forlorn, the lost, 
the miserable, yet pure and sinless Mary. 

He pictured her to his breaking heart, as struggling in the 
hateful embraces of the brutal bandit, or weeping at the feet of 
her obdurate, unrelenting father, or wringing her hands in the 
terrible anguish of love and terror, at the imaginary idea of his 
own bloody doom, until he groaned with unendurable agony. 
Then his feverish fancy would represent her, as being led a pale 
and trembling sacrifice to the altar, where she had hoped to 
stand, blushing and bright with joy on the morrow by his side, 
but in his stead to be urged and overpowered to bestow all 
the virgin sweetness of her celestial star-like beauty, upon the 
diabolical lust of an outlaw and felon. 

Under any circumstances, and always, the imagination forms 
the fiery climax of accursed torture, to conceive the woman that 
we love as life itself, in the actual, tangible possession of another, 
yes, even when we are conscious that his caresses cause no pain, 
or perchance may be returned with equal fervor. But when we 
know that every kiss impressed upon her shuddering lips, embod- 
ies the piercing pangs of a crucifixion, and that the touch of his 
very finger, however light, on her trembling flesh, will sear it 
like a branding iron, that his breath on her cheek is hateful as 
the hot blast from a furnace, and that his whispers in her horri- 
fied ears, sting her brain as scorpions — then, oh I then, we feel 
the poverty of human language to express our nameless emotion, 
this raving and madness of the mind, this frenzy of fire in the 
heart, this bewildering hell of all the passions. 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


163 


Bat occasionally the young lover indulged in more practical 
but not, on that account, less gloomy reflections. He could no 
longer doubt that Colonel Miles was a member of the black band, 
and as hardened a villain as the worst among them, but although 
the fact could not change his own infinite tenderness for the rol>- 
ber’s daughter, and would not shake his purpose to receive her 
as a bride, still he could not but feel that his parent would view 
the matter in a very different light, and would never forgive the 
disgrace of such a marriage. His attachment to all his relations 
and friends, was deep, devoted, and ardent, as might well be 
inferred from his profoundly earnest character ; and hence, he 
could not look forward without extreme agitation and grief to 
the inevitable estrangement of his family, and all the consequen- 
ces of a breach that never could be healed. And if he turned 
for relief from this harrowing thought, it was only to plunge 
again into the sunless depths of that seemingly eternal gulf of 
separation, which now yawned like a grave, between his hopes 
and that dear one, the dark-eyed and dark-haired, the divine 
angel of his dreams, all-beautiful as alhbeloved, without the 
radiance of whose celestial smiles the earth would be but a per- 
petual prison-house, and all the bright stars mere flakes of infer- 
nal fire, bubbles on the dark sea of measureless night, which des- 
pair had hung as in immortal mockery' in the firmament of 
heaven, now heaven no more forever. 

In the meantime, a scene of still wilder and more violent, if 
not deeper sorrow, was enacted at the residence of Colonel 
Miles. The foiled and defeated bandits flew back to that strong 
position, expecting the lynchers would pursue and attack them. 


164 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


But as hours passed by, without any signs of such an assault, 
the probability diminished, and they abandoned the conclusion. 
However, they determined to remain in the block-house during 
the rest of the night, and st^ioned their sentinels, and took all 
other necessary precautions to prevent surprise. 

The rage of Captain Carlyle at the result surpassed all bounds. 
Pale as the snowy linen of his own shirt-bosom, he rushed into 
the parlor, and searched the four corners with a glance like 
lightning, for the figure that was not there. 

“ Have you killed him V' inquired Colonel Miles, in a hoarse 
whisper, as he crept softly as a cat to the assassin’s side. 

“Where is Mary ?” exclaimed Carlyle in a voice of thunder, 
not deigning any answer to the other’s question. In the terrible 
concentration of his mind, perhaps, he did not even hear it. 

“ In her room,” responded the father. 

“ Go, and bring her.” 

“ Oh, captain, she is unwell — she is in convulsions I” faltered 
the colonel, awed into an ague himself, by Carlyle’s look and 
manner. 

“ Do you hear me ?” shouted the arch-robber, in still more 
furious tones ; “ I say, go and bring her dead or alive ; or I will 
go and bring her myself 1” and he made three steps towards the 
door. 

“ Stay !” cried the frightened father ; “ I am going ; she 
shall come immediately and he ran to his daughter’s apart- 
ment. 

A vision met his eyes such as might have exorcised the foul 
fiend from his heart, had it not been bound by fetters of steel 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


165 


from the infernal forge. Mary had recovered from the effects of 
mere physical agitation. All the agony was henceforth in the 
mind. For this is the deepest, the most insoluble mystery of 
grief in this wide world of woe, the chief problem of mysteries 
where all is mysterious, that the greatest sorrow manifests itself 
by few outward signs. The brook bubbles^and brawls ; the dark 
river, that drains the valleys and mountains of a continent, rolls 
its decp-volumed waters to the sea in the sublime might of 
sullen silence. Petty vexation^ raves and rends its loose ringlets ; 
infinite despair is awfully calm, still as Eternity I 

Mary was bowed on her knees, with clasped hands, pallid 
face, earnest eyes, and white, unwavering prayer-murmuring lips, 
raised with a mournful, appealing look towards heaven. She 
seemed some divine Madonna incarnated, an embodied dream of 
unutterable sadness, the idealized image of a soul all sorrow, but 
no sin 1 

“ Mary 1” said the awed father in a low voice. “ Mary 1” he 
repeated louder. The young girl arose and approaching him 
slowly, with her earnest, melancholy eyes fixed on his face, asked 
in a faint whisper, “ Where is my William ?” 

‘T know not,'^ gasped the colonel j “ but you are wanted in 
the parlor.” 

“ I will go,” she answered eagerly, and hurried down the 
stairs. Her father was astonished at this striking change in her 
demeanor, and especially at her ready acquiescence in the 
proposed interview with the bandit, when he had anticipated 
such a stormy scene, and even the necessity of employing 
force. 


166 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


As soon as she entered the room her dark eyes flashed light- 
ning, and she demanded sternly ; “ Robber, assassin, where is 
my William, my idol, the husband of my heart ?” 

“ Dead, and in hell !” roared the villain, gnashing his teeth, 
and foaming at the mouth, in a convulsion of rage ; “ I shot him 
with my own hand ; his flesh will feed the wolves to-night, and 
the ravens to-morrow I but you may have his white bones for 
toys, if you like. It will be all that you evermore shall see of 
your dainty lover I” 

Her beautiful face recovered its glow, and beamed with its old 
starlight smile, as she answered in joyous accents ; “ It is false, 
as your own black heart I If he were, indeed, dead, you would 
laugh and sing, instead of storming like a madman. He is 
alive 1 I may thank your countenance for telling the truth, 
notwithstanding the lie on your foul-foamed lips I And you fled 
from his honorable arm, like a coward, as you are I” 

“ Speak another word, and I will murder you exclaimed 
the raving wretch, grasping the hilt of his bowie-knife. 

“ That would be in perfect keeping with your character,” 
remarked Mary, scornfully. 

The captain made a powerful effort, and mastered his passion. 
He spoke in sneering tones, and with a cruel smile ; Well, it 
matters not, Mary ; for you must wed ine to-night.” 

“ Never, never I” cried the young girl ; I would rather die 
by my own act 1” and she thrust her hand into her bosom, and 
something gleamed between her fingers like polished silver. 

Shall it not be as I say, colonel interrogated Carlyle, 
with a threatening frown. 


THE NARROW ESCAPE. 


16 t 


‘‘ Yes,” answered the faltering father, quivering as a storm- 
swept leaf. 

“ Men, do you hear this ?” exclaimed Mary, turning to the 
crowd of robbers at the door, with the grand air of a queen ; 
“ did you imagine that any soul in the human form could be so 
mean, as to marry a woman, who loathes him as a black spider, 
who would commit a thousand suicides rather than touch his 
blood-polluted bosom. Remember your own mothers and sweet 
sisters in other lands, and rebuke this brute, as he deserves I” 

“It is a burning shame !” cried fifty voices, while an angry 
murmur told of still deeper indignation. 

Suddenly, a horseman galloped into the yard, crying, “ Hasten, 
captain, a hundred men have surrounded your house, a dozen of 
ours are endeavoring to defend it. Be quick, before the lynch- 
ers burn it to the ground I” 

Not an instant was to be lost, and the robbers hurried away. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE — JUDGE MOORE. 

The key of explanation to the events which I have just related, 
as well as to those about to be described, may be furnished in a 
few words. The secret committee of the lynchers, aware that 
they could no longer conceal their purposes, determined to take 
their enemies by surprise, before any adequate preparations had 
been arranged for resistance, and with this view they dispatched 
strong parties to arrest all suspected persons on the same night, 
hoping thus to prevent an organization of the robbers, and to 
strike the friends of law and order with such dismay and con- 
sternation as would effectually deter them from opposing the 
movements of the mob. We have witnessed the unsuccessful 
result of their attempt to capture Colonel Miles, an achievement 
which they had expected to accomplish with little difficulty. 
Their greatest apprehension concerned Captain Carlyle, and 
accordingly they had sent against his block-house, a select force 
of more than a hundred men, commanded by Pete Whetstone, 
one of the most terrible desperadoes, belonging to their company. 

As it happened, however, fortunately for the robbers, a small 
troop of some twenty bandits, from their camp at Soda Lake, 


THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE JUDGE MOORE. 169 


arrived at tbe stronghold a few minutes before the appearance 
of the lynchers, and the alarm being given by the sentinels, who 
had been stationed around the farm, the out laws flew to the 
port-holes, and made a desperate defence. In this they were 
aided by the beautiful Lucy, whose coolness, courage, and aston- 
ishing presence of mind, excited the wonder and admiration of 
the bravest among the band. With glowing cheeks and flashing 
eyes, and seemingly reckless of her own safety, she rushed to 
every point where the rifles roared loudest, and the danger 
menaced most, inspiring the defenders with her enthusiastic 
ardor, and even discharging the weapons of death with her deli- 
cate, yet daring hands. In short, she resembled an infernal fury 
more than a woman, and the ruffians awed by her unparalleled 
and almost preternatural energy, suffered her to assume the 
leadership, and obeyed every mandate of her stern unwavering 
voice, without a murmur. 

Four times had they already repelled the fierce assaults of 
their foes, when the thundering tones of Pete Whetstone rung in 
the night-air, Be quick, boys, set fire to the nigger cabins, we’ll 
burn them out, like possums in a holler tree I” 

In a few minutes the effect of this ruthless order became appa- 
rent. Half a hundred huts, combustible as tinder, at the dis- 
tance of twenty paces from the house, were all at once kindled, 
and shot up as many tall py-wmids of crimson flame, which soon 
mingled into a hot roaring hurricane, shedding over the scene 
a horrible illumination, and revealing the fierce visages of the 
combatants in the awful strife, like raging devils in the red light 
of purgatory. 


110 


RANGERS AND' REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


The wind, however, suddenly sprung up, and carried the bil- 
lows of the blazing sea in a different direction from the dwelling. 
Only once the roof ignited, and the lynchers uttered a deafening 
shout of ferocious triumph, considering the issue of the battle as 
inevitably decided. “ Fly up the stairs, open the trap-door, and 
quench the boards which have caught fire, with a wet blanket,'^ 
exclaimed Lucy. 

“No man can show his head there, without a rifle ball through 
his brains I” was the unanimous reply. 

“ Then, a woman will dare do it,” cried the undaunted hero- 
ine, and rushing out upon the roof, she instantly extinguished the 
flame. 

“ Shoot her down I” shouted Pete Whetstone, and a volley 
of bullets whistled about her ears, but not a single shot touched 
her, for, doubtless, those wild backwoodsmen were moved by her 
bravery and beauty, as well as by the novelty of the spectacle, to 
spare their fair enemy, and therefore aimed their guns so as to 
miss so lovely a mark. 

Nevertheless, if such was the fact, Lucy did not seem to appre- 
ciate the generosity of their forbearance, for with a disdainful 
smile, she snatched a small deringer from her bosom, and return- 
ing the fire, brought one of the lynchers to the ground, and 
immediately disappeared ^vithin the block-house. The company 
raised a maddened yell, and the savage voice of the desperate 
leader fulminated, “ Charge again, boys 1 break into the door, 
at all hazards, and the coward who retreats this time, I will pis- 
tol with my own hands I” 

The party rushed forward in a body, and attacked the solid 


THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE — JUDGE MOORE. IH 


shutters with axes and sledge hammers. Several of them fell, 
but others took their place, while the port-holes blazed inces- 
santly with adverse rifle^ muzzle to muzzle, and shouts, shrieks, 
moans, and mingled cursOs rent the air. 

At last the door began to give way, before the hail of heavy 
blows. The wood opened in deep fissures, the iron bands bent, 
and all the hinges started. The doom of the little garrison 
could be delayed no longer, and even the heroic Lucy called out 
for a parley. 

Pound away, men, we’ll be at them in a moment. Show the 
robbers no quarter I they have killed half a dozen of our boys 1’^ 
exclaimed Pete Whetstone, in merciless accents. 

“ And let me shoot the she-wolf, who has slain my poor 
brother I” cried a more youthful voice. 

But at the instant, when all hope seemed to abandon the side 
of the defence, the bugle-blast of Comanche Ben sounded within 
a hundred yards, and Captain Carlyle, with his whole troop, 
charged through the ranks of the astonished and panic-stricken 
lynchers. This unexpected and most timely relief, determined the 
fortune of the fight. For notwithstanding all the efforts of their 
commander, the regulators broke and fled in the utmost confusion, 
leaving half a score of their company dead, or wounded, in the 
yard. 

The slender garrison issued from the door, crying, “ Welcome, 
noble captain, we owe our safety to the courage of this brave 
woman!” and they pointed with gestures of boundless admiration 
to the slight form of Lucy, who leaped into the arms of her former 
lover, with a shout of simulated joy and tenderness, her black 


172 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP TBE TANAHA. 


eyes gleaming with a strange unearthly lustre, and her fine 
features begrimed with the smoke of gunpowder. 

The pair hastened into the library, where the heroine enumer- 
ated all the details of the affair. Even Carlyle betrayed, by his 
countenance, some tokens of his old affection, as he said to him- 
self, “ I can never more doubt her fidelity to my interests, and 
may securely trust her with the secrets of my soul.” 

Did you succeed in ridding yourself of that rival for the 
hand of Mary ?” inquired the artful woman, in the most loving 
accents. 

No, unfortunately the bird got frightened somehow, and 
managed to escape,” replied the other, in tones of irritation. 

r have thought of a plan by which you might, perhaps, 
win the proud beauty sooner than by any other means,” sug- 
gested Lucy, embracing him with apparently unusual fondness. 

“ What is it ?” he inquired, with eagerness and amaze- 
ment. 

“ Let me be introduced to her as your sister, and if I cannot 
effect anything by argument or persuasion, I can, at least, act 
as a spy upon her actions.” 

A shadow of suspicion flitted across the brow of the bandit, 
but Lucy’s dark eyes seemed so free from guile, and full of infinite 
tenderness, that the doubt vanished almost as quickly as it 
came, and he murmured, “ that is a most excellent idea, my 
dear ; I will put it into execution in the morning, and remember 
you for your trusting confidence, as long as I have life.” 

“ And not even forget it in death 1” she said in her heart ; 
but her syren lips whispered in his ear, “ I am so anxious to 


THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE — JUDGE MOORE. ItS 


realize our fortune, and leave this odious country, that I could 
even endure banishment from your bosom, in order to attain this 
most cherished hope of my soul, since an age of enjoyment would 
afterwards compensate me for a few years of self-denial.” 

” Oh ! Lucy, what a treasure I have found in you!^ exclaimed 
the deluded man, as he pressed her to his heart. 

“You will learn more of my true character, the longer you 
know me,” she answered, returning his caresses. 

Let us turn from this scene of hypocrisy, where these criminal 
souls, like two cunning spiders, were essaying to weave around 
each other their artful toils, to note the progress of a third 
party of regulators, who had been deputed to arrest one of their 
most abhorred enemies. 

It was the hour of midnight, but the mansion of Judge Moore, 
chief justice of the county court, was still illuminated, and all 
the inmates, with many relatives and friends, remained awake in 
the parlor. The band of a dozen lynchers approached the door 
and windows, with stealthy steps, as the wolf glides to the sheep- 
fold, and gazed into the hall. One might have imagined that 
the vision which met their eyes, would have changed their pitiless 
purpose, even if their hearts had been hard as fragments of the 
mountain granite. For although the apartment revealed^at 
least fifty forms, old and young, of both sexes, no music or merry 
dancing, no jest or jovial conversation, no witty remark, or light 
ringing laugh might be heard. Ev^n the occasional whispers, 
uttered, at distant intervals, were hushed, and inaudible at three 
inches from the sad listener’s ear. Now and then, only, a low 
heart-breaking sob disturbed the awful, grave-like silence, the 


lU 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


oppressive and mournful calmness of the place. Hold your 
breath ; tread softly ; for this is the dreary chamber where pale 
death reigns without a rival I 

Lo 1 an elderly lady, in sable robes, sits near the head of the 
corpse, with her wrinkled visage bowed upon her withered hands, 
and her wan lips trembling with speechless prayer. That is the 
grandmother, who mourns in vain for her nvurdered idol, and 
refuses even the consolations of the divine faith, which never 
before has failed her in the life-battle of fifty long years ! 

But where is the nearer and dearer bosom, which once bore 
this beautiful boy, now beautiful no more, but a cold, clammy, 
horrible thing, feared by the living, who loved him most — an 
object so utterly loathsome, than even the entreaties of his weep- 
ing twin-sister can no longer prevent the irrevocable doom, and 
to-morrow he must be hidden away out of human sight, in 
the eternal gloom of the hideous, hollow earth ? Say, where is 
she, who watched his infancy, and smiled with glowing fondness 
and pride upon his youth, she to whose eyes his own smile 
seemed brighter than the lustre of any star in the firmament ? 
Can the mother abandon her child, although it has become but 
a mass of disgusting clay ? Alas I hear ye not the faint moans 
in 4;he adjacent room, from that bed of torture, whither they 
carried her after the fearful swoon, when the bloody body was 
brought home, and from which it is doubtful whether she will 
ever rise again ? 

A man of middle size, with a large bald head, high full fore- 
head, and penetrating eyes of the purest azure, with a counte- 
nance still stern in all its solemn sadness, paces back and for- 


THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE — JUDGE MOORE. 175 


\fard, the length of the room, with his thin lips compressed, and all 
his features rigid as a man of marble, and entirely without ges- 
tures, save when he lifts his right hand to his brow with a con- 
vulsive grasp, as if to repress some burning pang in the brain. 
That is the father, the great land-speculator, the proud, wealthy, 
and ambitious Judge Moore, and of all the suffering souls in that 
habitation of sorrow, perhaps he suffers most. In stubborn, 
haughty natures, the agony within, is all the more terrible, 
because through the iron crust of habit, it can find no outlet for 
the discharge of its immense emotions. It is like the central 
fires of the earth, when all their old volcanic craters have been 
stopped up, when the burning billows roll beneath the deep 
foundations of the Alps and Andes, and the rock-ribbed world 
trembles, as if in the throes of final dissolution. When tears 
flow, they are a sweet medicine to the “ mind diseased.’^ As the 
melting of snows in the mild months of spring, they bear away 
the icy burden fK>m the heart, and the flowers of our life renew 
their perfume and verdure, while heavenly hope, like a singing 
bird, comes back again, with its old unforgotten music. But all 
the moisture of the eye, too stern to weep, changes to eternal 
frost, and lies upon the overladen brain and bosom, like sunless 
snow drifts at the frozen pole 1 Thus felt that worldly father, 
and he would have willingly bartered half his enormous fortune, 
the fruits of long laborious seasons, and of subtle scheming, for 
the luxury of delicious tears. 

A more youthful form stood near the chimney, with his left 
elbow resting on the mantel, and his right hand thrust into hij 
bosom, as if clutching the hilt of a dagger, while his piercing 


176 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


blue eyes never ceased to stare, with a terrible look, upon tlio 
livid features of the dead. The young man was about twenty- 
five years of age, with a fierce, yet handsome face, a low massive 
forehead, and a figure of the ordinary height, but large limbed 
and muscular, denoting vast power and activity. His florid 
complexion showed signs of early dissipation, and his common 
plebeian countenance evinced the predominance of animal passion 
over the nobler faculties of the intellect. This was the elder son, 
Alfred Moore, who had just arrived from San Antonio, after a 
year’s absence. He had listened to the horrible details in 
gloomy silence, and had not even so much as spoken since he 
had entered the house, while his gaze remained fixed upon the 
corpse, as if he were endeavoring to read in the pale lines of 
that appalling visage, the awful secrets of life and death. 

Suddenly the door of an adjoining room opens, and a young 
girl glides in, and kneeling down beside the dead, cries in heart- 
rending tones ; “ Oh, my brother I Oh, my- poor murdered 
brother ! would to God that I could sleep in the same cold 
grave, as I once slept in the same warm cradle, with thee, my 
playmate, my idol, my dearest Albert 1’^ She bathes the face of 
the corpse with tears, she smoothes its golden hair with her hands, 
she seeks to renew the warmth of those icy lips with countless 
kisses I She folds her arms around that sheeted bosom which 
shall beat with a love-throbbing heart never more till the final 
fire. She murmurs words of fond endearment in those deaf and 
stony ears, which even thunder shall never startle again, until 
the world-waking reverberations of the archangel’s trump shall 
split the crystalline vault of heaven, and shake the highest stars 



Suddenly the door of an ailjoiiiiug room opens, and a young girl glides in, and kneel- 
ing down beside the dead, cries in heart-rending tones! “ Oh, my brother! Oh, mv 
I)oor murdered brother ! would to God that I could sleep in tlie same cold grave, as I 
once slept in the same warm cradle, with thee, my playmate, my idol, my dearest 
Albert !” — Page 17(5. 




THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE — ^JUDGE MOORE. ITT 

from their orbits ! Her grief affected the most frigid among 
the spectators, and tears fell upon the floor like rain. The 
father, however, 'did not weep, but groaned aloud, and struck 
his lofty forehead with both his hands. The eldest son at the 
fireplace frowned till his eyebrows met, and half unsheathing his 
bowie-knife muttered some inaudible vow of vengeance. 

To the veriest stranger, the relationship of the young girl 
to the deceased must have been apparent. She was, indeed, his 
twin-sister, the most famous belle of the republic, the rumor of 
whose charms had been circulated by travellers to the remotest 
confines of Texas. Her full yet graceful figure, and fair regu- 
lar, rosy, features, had their rivals, it is true. The golden ring- 
lets of her sunny hair might, perhaps, be equalled. A hundred 
voices might be found with liquid cadences as bewitching as hers. 
There were other lips as rich in lustre, and other limbs as round 
and tapering. But you might wander over the world in vain 
without meeting such a pair of eyes, so large, so luminous, so 
celestially blue, as if formed out of a fresh piece of heaven’s own 
summer azure, and filled with starlight from the evening sky. 
You might watch her in sleep without the danger of emotion. 
The view of her profile would, perhaps, leave your heart 
unscathed, but the instant that she turned upon you those 
beaming cerulean orbs, with that matchless, soul-melting smile, 
your heart Jike a trembling eastern slave, in spite of the reason, 
would bow down and adore at the feet of the queen of beauty, 
the starry-eyed goddess of irresistible love. Such was the para- 
gon of Texas, Jenny Moore. But the living lustre of that 
faultless face was now dimmed with tears, and pale with sorrow. 

8 * 


178 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


ful vigils ; and during two terrible nights of bereavement and 
woe, those two eyes had seen nothing save the ghastly visage of 
the dead ; and still she wept and implored that they would not 
bury him away from her sight and tender caresses. 

All at once, a loud knocking was heard at the door. One of 
the guests opened the shutter, and a dozen armed men rushed 
into the room, headed by the huge form of Bill Minton, brother 
to the murderer of that darling son, the corpse over which the 
family and their friends were now mourning. Every person 
present arose, except the twin-sister, who was so absorbed in 
her grief, that she did not seem to notice the ominous intrusion. 

The leader of the lynchers §rst broke the awful silence, with a 
thundering, harsh voice, as brutal as his phraseology : 

“ Old land-pirate, you are wanted 1” 

Judge Moore gazed at the speaker sternly, and then pointed 
his long unwavering fore-finger, without uttering a word, at the 
corpse of his son 1 His haughty, yet unutterably sad counte- 
nance looked sublime. The unmoving mute finger appeared to 
say, There is my answer I Assassins, behold your work 
But all the while, the eldest son stood with his left elbow on the 
mantel-piece, and his right hand played with the hilt of his dagger. 

“Do you not hear us, old cuss ?” vociferated Bill Minton ; “I 
say, you^re wanted I” 

“ By whom asked the judge in calm, severe accents. 

“ By the committee of regulators.” 

“ Where is your process ?” 

Minton touched his double-barrelled shot-gun, with a savage 
smile. 


THE BATTLE AT THE BLOCK HOUSE — JUDGE MOORE. 119 


“ But, suppose, that I do not see proper to obey such an 
unusual summons, what then V’ inquired the judge. 

“ Why, we’ll jist hang you up thar to the jiste of your own 
house 1” answered Minton with a burst of diabolical laughter. 

The menace, with that ferocious accompaniment of fiendish 
mirth, effectually aroused the young girl,- and casting herself at 
the feet of the ruffians, she entreated, “ Oh I for the love of 
B&eaven, do not murder my dear father ! You have killed my 
poor brother. Will not one victim suffice ? For God’s sake, 
leave us to bury our dear dead !” The elder son removed his 
left elbow from its position on the mantel, but his right hand 
played more busily with the hilt of his knife, and he eyed 
the lynchers with sidelong glances. 

“ Git out, gal !” exclaimed Bill, in impatient accents ; “if yer 
daddy don’t go with us, we’ll hang him, that’s all ! Them ar’ 
our orders, and by thunder, it shall be done I” 

“Very well,” said the judge, “in order to spare the feelings 
of my family, and to prevent you from disgracing yourselves more 
than devils, not from any personal fear, I will attend you ! 
Let us be off at once.” 

“ Oh, do not go, dearest father. They will butcher you as 
they did my poor brother Albert !” and the daughter clung 
to his knees with the strength of desperation. 

“ Git out, gal 1” shouted Bill Minton again, still more furi- 
ously, and he gave her a push with his foot, that sent her rolling 
over on the floor. 

“ Ha 1” ejaculated the elder son, and making a spring, like a 
tiger, he plunged the dagger up to the hilt in the lyncher’s side, 


180 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


and bounding through the door, effected his escape, amidst a hail 
of hissing buckshot. 

Minton staggered an instant, took two steps forward, and 
fell dead across the corpse, staining the snowy winding-sheet, 
and even the wan visage of the dead, with the crimson 
flow from his heart. What a terrible retribution I And 
it is always thus in purple lands, where law protects not 
life. Homicide never escapes long unpunished. Sooner or 
later, some friend of the slain avenges his ashes, and then another 
relative of the last one fallen, takes up the gory knife to perish 
in his turn, and so the horrid legacy of mutual murder is 
bequeathed from father to son, upon two families, for unborn, 
and sometimes distant, generations I 


CHAPTER XY. 


SOL TUTTLE AND BROTHER DAVE — THE BROTHERS BARTON AND THE 
SISTERS EWING. 

On the. same night previously mentioned, when so many similar 
scenes of violence were occurring in different sections of the 
country, at an early hour, the fire-side of Sol Tuttle presented 
an appearance unusually cheerful and interesting. The cause of 
this additional happiness, in a family always satisfied with their 
humble fortune, might be perceived at a glance, in the presence 
of a guest, bearing many traits of resemblance to the head of the 
house, but modelled, as it were, after a still coarser and more 
Titanic pattern. He was indeed a vast frame of bones, without 
an ounce of supernumerary flesh, with a small bullet-shaped 
head, supported by a very short neck, showing enormous volumes 
of muscular fibres, indicating at once great strength and equal 
animal passions. His locks had the same dark hue as the hun- 
ter’s, but seemed rolled in endless tangles, and rough as the mane 
of a mustang. His low, broad forehead was knotted and gnarled 
about the brows, like the roots of a forest oak. His diminutive 
eyes of a dark-drown tint, glittering and restless, looked keen as 


182 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


daggers, but wanted that twinkle of merry good humor, which con- 
stituted the principal charm of the other’s countenance. These 
features, with a nose extremely long and slightly aquiline, and 
a mighty massive chin, combined to give him the aspect of a 
great grim savage, at once, powerful, passionate, revengeful, 
immutable in his attachments, as well as his antipathies. 

This was an elder brother of Sol, the celebrated Dave Tuttle, 
known by the super-added epithet of “dare devil,” all over Mis- 
souri and Arkansas, and to every hunter and trapper in the 
Rocky Mountains. He had just arrived that evening from the 
Rio Grande, where he had been, for more than eighteen months, 
entrusted with some secret mission under the order of General 
Houston. He did not appear to share the hilarious emotions, 
which his advent had produced among his friends, but sat in the 
chimney-corner, with the grave, gloomy countenance of an 
Indian, busily engaged in whittling a pine stick, with the blade 
of an immense bowie-knife, nearly two feet in length. 

“ How do you like the yaller-faced Mexicans ?” inquired Sol, 
essaying, by some means, to stir up conversation. 

“ Wuss nor pisen,” answered Dave, with a frown. 

“ ’Aint the gals purty 

“ Uglier nor pole-cats.” 

“ It seems, then, you don’t fancy ’em, so much as the Black- 
feet,” suggested Sol, with a sly wink at Susy 

“No, becaze the mountain Indians ar’ brave as thur own 
grizzly bars, and thur squaws have some vartue.” 

“I ’spose you tried ’em well on both pints,” said Sol, 
laughing. 


SOL TUTTLE AND BROTHER DAVE. 


183 


I had my own wife, Big Thunder’s darter,” answered Dave, 
seriously ; “ and I stuck to her like the bark to a pine-tree.” 

The discourse flagged for a few minutes, when Dave suddenly 
aroused himself, and asked with a look of terrible animation ; 
“ Sol, is old Morrow alive yit 

“Yes,” replied the other, dropping his glance to the floor, and 
fidgeting uneasily upon his stool. 

“ Sol, ar’ you a coward ?” interrogated the elder brother, in 
bitter, sneering accents. 

“ No,” answered the hunter, with a blush of shame and indig- 
nation ; “ I’m as brave as you any day, and you know it ; but, 
somehow, I don’t want the smell of a human critter’s blood on 
my hands. I’m afeerd of the judgment hereafter, and I think, 
as how, I would be haunted by the dead man’s sperit.” 

“ Sol, you’re a fool,” retorted Dave, contemptuously ; “ I’ve shot 
lots of Indians, and white villains too, and I never seed any 
ghost yit. I ’spect when folks ar’ once ferried over the black 
water, they don’t cross back agin in a hurry, ’specially if thur 
landin’ is in the hot country.” 

“ Yes, but I beKeve we all had the same Maker,” urged the 
other ; “ and the Bible says, as how, He ain’t pleased, when we 
poor feller-critters cut each other’s throats.” 

“ One mout as well be hung fur stealin’^a sheep as a lamb,” 
retorted Dave, and immediately added with an awful oath ; “I’d 
have the old sinner’s life, if I had to burn in brimstone fur ever I 
Didn’t he kill our poor brother Mose, like a hog, givin’ him no 
sort of show, any more nor a snake ? Didn’t he have a hundred 
fellers to help him ? Did the infarnal Injiu say, fair fight, so 


184 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


much as once ? I’ll send him a challenge to-morrow, if I 
knowed, that I should be in hell before night I” 

“ You hain’t heern, as how, he’s at the head of a new lynchin’ 
company, bigger nor the last one in Missouri,” said the hunter, 
in agitated tones. 

“I don’t care a cuss fur that,” exclaimed Dave furiously ; 
“ I’ll hev’ his scalp, at long taw, if I can’t find any other way. 
I’m sartan, if me or you had been killed instead of Mose, the 
brave feller never would have slept, until he got blood fur 
blood I” 

“ And I’m sure if anybody wur’ to shoot daddy or you, uncle 
Dave, I’d pop ’em over, like squirrels,” interposed the boy. 

That’s the right talk for the old Pocahontas breed,” cried 
Dave, slapping Jack Randolph on the shoulder, with an air of 
proud delight. 

Suddenly, the great black dog, which had been stretched at 
his hairy length before the fire, bounded up, and barking wrath- 
fully, rushed into the yard. “ Hush up, Nig,” exclaimed Sol, 
stepping to the door, when he perceived half-a-dozen strange 
horsemen approaching. They halted at the distance of a few 
paces, and one of them spoke in a pleasant voice ; “ We wish to 
trespass on your hospitality, to-night, if you would be so obliging 
as to accommodate us.” 

“Sartanly, gentlemen. I’m not a savage to turn away any 
traveller frum my shed, if he can put up with the fare of a hun- 
ter. Git off, and let’s hopple out yer bosses.” 

“No, we’ll tie them up, thank you,” remarked the first 
speaker, and this being done, the whole party entered the house 


SOL TUTTLE AND BROTHER DAVE. 


185 


and seated themselves on dilfferent stools. They were truly a wild, 
rough-loooking set, dressed in soiled time-worn buckskin, with 
unshaven visages, and fierce, ferocious eyes, and all, without 
exception, presented forms of great power, as if they had been 
selected for some dangerous service, requiring the utmost 
strength and daring. The man, who appeared to be the leader, 
showed enormous masses of muscles, swelling out in volumes near 
the joints, while the expression of his large coarse features, and 
cruel grey eyes, betokened a disposition to rely more on the 
principle of his own undoubted might, than upon questionable 
rules of abstract right 

If I mout be so bold, stranger,” said Sol, in friendly tones ; 
“ I^d like to ax, whur^ ar’ you travellin’ to ?” 

“ The Trinity, on a buffalo hunt.” 

“ What mout be your name ?” 

“ Mose Miller,” answered the giant. 

“ Whur ar’ you frum jist now ?” 

“ Louisiana.” 

“ I have half a mind to saddle up in the mornin^, and go with 
you,” remarked Sol, musing. 

“We shall be most proud of yer company,” affirmed Mose 
Miller, with a singular smile, while the other ruffians uttered a 
low titter. 

“ Pll do it,” declared the hunter ; “ thar^s no sort of fun like 
a chase arter buffalo.” 

“ The more the merrier,” observed Miller ; “ we have fifty in 
our party already.” 

“ Whur ar^ the balance of yer boys ?” 


i86 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ They’ll be along presently ; there, I hear them coming now,” 
said Mose, with a sinister look, as the sound of hoofs, like the 
gallop of a large troop came thundering over the prairie, and in 
a moment, the horsemen paused at the door. 

Sol advanced a step, when Mose Miller and two others of the 
gang suddenly threw themselves upon him, while the rest 
assaulted the elder brother in the same unexpected manner. A 
horrible combat ensued. It lasted, however, but a few seconds ; 
for twenty more of the regulators rushed through the door, and 
after a brief but bloody struggle, overpowered their victims, and 
bound them securely with strong cords. 

Just as the 'mUee ended, Mose Miller exclaimed, in a voice of 
astonishment and horror, “ My God I look there, boys, the dog 
is killing Jake Johnson I” All eyes turned towards the corner, 
and never did a more hideous vision greet ihe human gaze. 
While the general, boisterous combat had been proceeding, a 
silent, but still more deadly strife had been going on unobserved. 
For at the instant, when the struggle commenced. Nigger had 
sprung and seized the throat of the assailant nearest to him, drag- 
ged the young man to the floor, as easily as if he had been a cat, and 
shook and throttled him with those awful, sharp teeth, until his 
blood-shot eyes protruded from their sockets, then grew vacant 
and glassy, and finally became fixed in that fearful stony stare, 
which never might beam again with one ray from the sweet 
light of life I The favorite son of parson Johnson was no more 1 

“ Shoot the dog 1” shouted the leader of the lynchers, and a 
score of guns emptied their contents into the mass of hair and 
bloody foam. The limbs of the animal quivered in the last com 


SOL TUTTLE AND BROTHER DAVE. 


m 


vnlsion, which agonizes alike the man and brute. He fell upon 
the corpse of the human dead, that he had just slain ; but those 
massive iron jaws still retained their hold on the suffocated 
throat of his antagonist, and had to be broken open with a 
chisel ! > 

All at once, as this revolting tragedy closed, the bloody cur- 
tain of death rose upon another equally terrible. Among the 
captors of the two brothers, was Morton Morrow, the major’s 
second son. Actuated by a spirit of barbarous revenge, this 
savage dealt Sol Tuttle a stunning blow in the face, after his 
hands had been tied, exclaiming as he did so ; “ Thar now, that’s 
the fust payment fur yer puttin’ father’s shoulder out of jinte, 
and the last will be to-morrow, when we unjinte yer neck I” 
Scarcely had the word left his lips, when the loud report of a 
pistol sounded in the room, and the speaker dropped upon the 
floor like a lump of lead. The bullet had pierced the centre of 
his forehead ! 

The lynchers uttered a simultaneous cry of infernal fury, not 
unmixed with emotions of fear, and the deafening shout, Who 
did it ? who did it ?” rent the air. 

“ This little boy,” answered a voice near the fire-place, and 
the amazed spectators beheld the slight form of Jack Randolph, 
with a deringer in his hand, still smoking at the muzzle, while 
his dark eyes blazed with lurid light, and his features glowed 
with burning passion, like those of some mighty hero, facing the 
fire of a bastion about to be stormed, in the crisis of victorious 
battle. 

** Kill the young rattle-snake I Down with the devil’s 


188 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


imp I” cried a majority of the throng, and several guns were 
presented to execute the menace, when the boy’s mother, who 
had previously remained motionless near the chimney, as if 
utterly paralyzed with fright, suddenly threw herself between 
her son and his i^^tended assassins, covering him with her own 
body, and begging piteously for his life ; “ Oh ! men, have 
mercy ! do not murder my child, my first born, my darling ! 
Mercy ! mercy 1 I pray, for the love of yer mothers I” 

“ Boys, don’t shoot him,” commanded the leader ; “ it’s agin 
our orders ; becaze the major says, as how, it will disgrace our 
company, to kill anybody ’cept by bangin’ I So fasten his fists 
together, and we’ll carry him along with us.” 

“ Oh, I’m so glad of it I” cried Jack ; “ I’ll now be with my 
dear daddy I” 

The party immediately prepared for their march to the head- 
quarters of the committee, leaving a small force to procure 
a wagon and follow with their dead. At the moment of their 
departure, Susy Tuttle approached the commander of the troop, 
and faltered ; “ For God’s sake, let my poor husband and boy 
bid us all farewell I it may be a great while before we see each 
other agin I” 

“ Well, I don’t care,” answered Miller, in a mild voice, 
touched in spite of his habitual brutality, by the artless, unut- 
terable grief of that weeping woman. She hastily mustered the 
blue-eyed little girls, and the father and brother kissed them all 
tenderly with many a lingering good-by,” sad and solemn, it is 
true, yet still firm and dignified, for they both feared to betray 
any tokens of weakness in the presence of their unrelenting foes. 


189 


SOL TUTTLE AND BROTHER DAVE. 

But when the mother ran to the cradle, and producing the idol 
of the household, the flower and the pride of the family, their 
beautiful bright-eyed babe, and held up its angel face and smil- 
ing velvet lips for a last caress of love, Sol, unable to play the 
stoic any longer, fairly broke down. His stern mouth quivered 
nervously, his breath came in heart-breaking sobs, and nature 
gaining, more and more, the mastery over the man, all the fond 
father’s soul rushed into his eyes, and found vent in a great flood 
of tears. 

“ Come, let’s be off,” ordered the leader of the lynchers, and 
the prisoners were hurried out of the door, and mounted on dif- 
ferent horses, led by members of the gang, while two others rode 
by each captive holding the loose ends of the rope, by which 
their hands had been fastened, and the whole troop surrounded 
them, to preclude every hope of escape. 

It was a beautiful, cloudless night, and the old divine star- 
light smiled over the waving ^reen of the prairie, with a lustre 
lovely as the dawn of day. The regulators, nothwithstanding 
the late horrible incidents, jested, laughed, and sang wild songs, 
or tortured the minds of their captives, by drawing hideous 
word-pictures of the death they must endure on the morrow. 
The latter made no reply, but maintained unbroken silence. 

At length, they reached the forest, just as the first faint 
streaks of pale morning light began to dapple the great, grey 
orient. There the road being comparatively narrow, forced the 
party to lengthen their column, and Dave Tuttle determined to 
attempt an escape. Suddenly bending far forwards in the 
saddle, and grasping the horn of the pommel firmly with both his 


190 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


bands, and at tbe same instant, kicking his horse violently in 
the flanks, he uttered a terrible cry. The frightened animal 
leaping onwards through the air, jerked the ends of the cord out 
of the fingers of Tuttle’s guard, and the prisoner throwing him- 
self upon the earth, fled away into the dark thicket : a volley of 
buckshot and bullets whistled around him, and many started in 
pursuit, but after a laborious and protracted search, they were 
compelled to give it up without success ; and the gang, once 
more, marched towards Major Morrow’s residence, where they 
arrived early the next day, with Sol and his little son. 

Let us now describe another scene, presented on that eventful 
night. About the hour of one in the morning, four persons 
were seated in the principal room of a double log cabin, which 
stood on the left bank of the Tanaha, some ten miles from Shel- 
by ville. The party, just mentioned, consisted of two handsome 
youths, fashionably dressed, and a couple of young girls, in their 
Sunday robes, and wearing their best looks and sweetest smiles. 
A single glance sufficed to show the relation of these individuals. 
They were evidently lovers, sitting up, for the purpose of tender 
courtship, according to the delightful custom prevalent in the 
backwoods. Each fond pair had taken a position in different 
corners, as far apart as possible and employed their time, con- 
versing in those delicious murmuring whispers, which form the 
chosen language for the revelation of the divine mysteries of 
love. 

I have already said, that the youths might be pronounced 
handsome, and I will add that they bore a striking family 
resemblance to each other. Both had slender forms, fair feat- 


THE BROTHERS BARTON AND THE SISTERS EWING. 


191 


ures, with yellow hair, and light blue eyes. They were, in fact, 
the brothers, John and William Barton, the nephews of Judge 
Moore, and sons of his favorite sister. The heirs of considerable 
wealth, their prospects in life seemed brilliant enough, but their 
appearance did not indicate the right sort of metal for the fron- 
tier ; for with much intelligence and more vanity, their visages 
betokened a want of firmness, and the courage to face unusual 
perils. 

The young girls, also sisters, Eliza and Alice Ewing, belonged 
obviously to a lower rank in life than their lovers, if one might 
judge from their home-spun clothing, and that certain nameless 
deficiency in the countenance, which, even on faces the most fault- 
less, betrays the lack of education. They both, however, possessed 
striking charms, in their full, round figures, their fair rosy 
cheeks, in their rich brown hair, and especially in the latighing 
lustre of their dark blue eyes, that looked bricnming over with 
love and happiness, as if no tears had ever yet stained their 
sunny azure. But of the two couples, William and Alice seemed 
more beautiful than John and Eliza, as they were certainly the 
more youthful. And the graces of all appeared heightened by 
the fond affection, which beamed on their features, and by the 
crimson illumination of the pine-fire, resembling in itself a love- 
blush as it increased or decayed, and at times, nearly died out 
in the darkness. On such occasions, the young men seized the 
golden opportunity to snatch a furtive kiss, or to measure the 
waists of the girls, with their folded arms. 

The situation, nevertheless, was by no means, dangerous ; for 
at such moments, the widow in the adjoining apartment, how- 


192 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


ever loud she might be snoring, never failed to wake up suddenly, 
with the prudent order ; “ There^ Eliza, throw another pine-knot 
on the lire I” 

^Such a cruel command had just been given, as the clock struck 
one. Your mother sleeps with one eye open;^’ whispered 
William, and the remark excited Alice to a merry titter, and all 
four united in the laugh ; when, the minute afterwards, as 
the fire blazed up, with its broad red light, the nasal organs of 
the good matron renewed their mellow music, as if she were 
dreaming at the rate of twenty knots to the hour. 

The unfilial merriment soon subsided, and John Barton 
addressed the couple in the opposite corner ; “ Eliza and myself 
have concluded to be married to-morrow evening, what do you 
say, William and Alice, cannot you two be ready at the same 
time 

Certainly,” answered the younger brother, with eager joy ; 
** we had just formed the same praiseworthy resolution.” 

The widow Ewing ceased to snore, and then started again, at 
a gentle pace, as it may be supposed, in order not to interrupt 
the conversation, and still to catch the tenor of its substance, but 
at the instant, an event happened which prevented all further 
discourse, and changed the whispers of elysian love into exclama- 
tions of grief and terror. A loud knocking, like the blows of 
some iron instrument, was heard at the door, and all the wooers 
turned pale and trembled, as if summoned to sudden death. 

As no one moved, a rude voice thundered outside, Open the 
shutter, or we’ll break it down 1” 

Still the young men were too agitated to obey the order, and 


THE BROTHERS BARTON AND THE SISTERS EWING. 193 


immediately the door flew from its hinges with a loud crash, and 
half a score of armed ruffians, headed by a desperate bully, one 
Levi Powers, rushed into the room, while the maidens clung to 
the bosoms of their lovers, uttering the wildest shrieks, and 
the youths themselves actually seemed too much panic-stricken 
even to articulate any species of sound. 

“ Shet up yer cussed squallin’, yer wuss nor wildcats a court- 
in’,” exclaimed the brutal ctJtnmander ; “ we’re come arter yer 
sweethearts, and we must take ’em.” 

“ What do you want with them ?” inquired Eliza, who first 
recovered the use of her tongue. 

“ The lynchin’ committee have sent us fur ’em, and that’s all we 
know about it,” replied Powers, with a black frown. 

At the mention of the awful word, “ lynching committee,” the 
young men tottered as if in the act of falling ; but the ruffians 
instantly seized them, tied their hands, and hurried away into 
the dark night, without heeding the prayers and wailing entreat- 
ies of their affianced brides. For no lion of the Lybian desert, 
no snake of the burning south, no monster on earth, or in hell, 
was ever half so pitiless, in the fierce frenzy of passion, as the 
maddened and murder-breathing mob I 


9 


CHAPTER XYI. 

CARLYLE AND CURRAN. * 

On the next morning after the startling events, narrated in 
the previous chapter, the residence of the chief robber presented 
the appearance of a strong military position, in the anxious 
expectation of an immediate assault. Sentinels were stationed 
around the place in every direction, while powerful guards had 
been thrown out to defend the approaches, and three hundred 
men, thoroughly armed, stood prepared for the battle, about the 
block-house, and at the port-holes. Indeed, the situation itself, 
in the sharp angle, formed by the junction of the Tanaha and 
Sabine, with their crumbling precipitous banks, and deep, muddy 
currents, was exposed to attack only on a single side, and that 
being a smooth, level field, any storming party would be subject, 
without the least shelter, to a murderous hail of bullets and 
buckshot, the moment when they should come within range of 
the guns. 

Captain Carlyle sat alone in his library, buried in gloomy 
reflections, and at times, glancing uneasily towards the door, as 
if anticipating some unusual arrival. Suddenly, the slender form 
m 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


195 


of Lieutenant Curran rushed in, without ceremony ; his counte- 
nance bearing evident tokens of agitation, with his long golden 
hair floating dishevelled on his shoulders, and his clothing soiled, 
• torn, and blood-stained, as if he had been recently engaged in 

t 

mortal conflict. 

“ Eh I Curran, what has happened exclaimed Carlyle, 
springing to his feet, in alarm and astonishment. 

“ Nothing of much consequence,” answered the other, with 
the old mischievous twinkle, kindling afresh in his bright blue 
eyes j “ only I have made a narrow escape, and the lynchers 
have caught our dear brother Jonathan; 

The captain turned pale as a dead man, with vexation and 
rage, and swearing a horrible oath, added, “ Now they will get 
all our secrets, for the cowardly Yankee, in order to save his 
own worthless life, will be sure to betray us, and varnish his dis- 
closures, besides, with a hundred lies.” 

Multum mentitur^ qui multum vidit^^ said Curran with a 
smile. 

“ It is terrible I” continued the chief of the bandits, striding 
up and down the apartment, with a lowering brow ; “ it is too 
dreadful to be thus foiled in our plans, when on the golden verge 
of princely fortunes 1 to be hurled back from the radiant heights 
of hope and boundless wealth into the abyss of poverty— aye, to 
become beggars as well as outlaws ; beggars, that is the term I” 

“ Tout est suggested the lieutenant ; “ but then we’ll 

have nothing more to fear ; for as the great poet sings, Vacuus 
cantat coram latrone viator^ 

“ Fool I” shouted Carlyle, furiously ; how can you jest, at 


196 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Buch a moment ? I tell yon, that our very necks will be in 
jeopardy ; for Hutson’s inevitable revelations will arouse the 
whole country against us.” 

I think,” said Curran in a more serious tone, “ that tho case 
is not half so desperate as. your imagination would make it. I 
learned this morning, that General Houston is fit Nacogdoches 
with a large force of rangers, and from the brave hero’s well- 
known hatred of mob-law, he will doubtless march, *at the 
instant when he hears of the insurrection, and suppress the 
organization of the lynchers forever.” 

The features of the captain brightened immediately, as he 
exclaimed in joyfully triumphant accents ; “ We are saved I I 
thought it strange, that the devil should desert me in this very 
crisis of my destiny ! in one more month, if we play our cards 
cunningly, we will be rich as the Rothschilds I” and he seated 
himself, at his ease, on the sofa. 

After deliberating silently, for a few minutes, the arch-robber 
looked up, and fixing his dark eyes, with a cruelly determined 
expression on the other’s face, he remarked ; “ Curran, one thing 
is necessary to insure both our success and safety. That man 
must die !” 

“What man must die?” inquired the lieutenant, in careless tones. 

“ The man from whom we have most to fear ; the craven con- 
fidant of all our schemes ; the man who holds our very lives in 
his slippery hand — Jonathan Hutson !” 

“ I do not perceive any present, or even future prospect of his 
dying, unless the lynchers should accommodate you by killing 
him.” 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


19t 


“ Could not you manage to conceal yourself among the bushes, 
near their head-quarters, and send a rifle ball through his 
brain asked Carlyle calmly. 

“ I have never yet committed a cool premeditated murder, and 
by Heaven, I never will,” responded Curran, with a grave reso- 
lute countenance. 

“ You would rather, then, lose the fruits of all our toil and 
trouble I” exclaimed the more unscrupulous bandit, with a bitter 
sneer. “You have, all at once, grown distressfully conscientious, 
when a trivial, but bold crime would place us beyond the reach 
of peril. You Will turn religious next, and be whining with the 
mourners in some Methodist altar ! but an ocean of hypocritical 
tears could scarcely wash away the blood already on your red 
right hand I” 

The handsome features of the lieutenant became pale as he 
answered in a serious voice ; “ You ought to remember, cousin, 
that your crafty persuasions tempted me to adopt this wicked 
course of life. I was not originally depraved or dishonest ; but 
a mere romantic dreamer, fond of the marvellous in idea and 
action, and impatient of the fettering thraldom of custom and 
habit. From my earliest childhood, your ambitious nature and 
will of iron exercised a despotic sway over all my own passions 
and plans. Your influence controlled me, like a species of fas- 
cination ; a wizard’s spell, which I had no power to resist if I 
would. Your finger was the magnet, and my heart the tremu- 
lous needle, that followed its direSion, wherever you chose to 
point your hand. 

“ Again, and again, did my sainted mother warn me of this 


198 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OE THE TANAHA. 


fatal infatuation, and predict its consequences. All her prayers, 
arguments, and tears, proved unavailing to break the irresistible 
chain, which bound me as a weak and wavering slave to your 
all- conquering volitions. I entered into all your aims, hopes, 
studies., pastimes, and changed even my mother’s creed for your 
scepticism and scoffing. In the depth of my degradation and 
folly, I did not desire any heaven, unless I could share it with 
you.” 

“ At first, fortune smiled propitiously on all our prospects, and 
riches and honorable fame seemed within our mutual grasp ; 
when you madly dashed them all away for the gratification of 
an animal passion, and ingloriously fled from your country, as a 
refugee and outlaw. Even then, I did not hesitate to accompany 
you ; and to consummate the climax of sins and absurdities, your 
infernal logic and rhetoric converted me into a common robber. 
Only one thing your satanic cunning and my own stupidity 
could not render me — a cold-blooded merciless murderer I” 

“And so, it appears that your enemies are all safe in the 
enjoyment of the sweet sunlight 1 the earth has no white bones, 
no crimson-bosomed bodies, planted beneath its green sward by 
your hand said Carlyle, smiling disdainfully. 

The other retorted with a slight shudder ; “ It is true, cousin, 
that I have slain my victims, alas 1 too many ; but the deed has 
always been done, in the burning heat of battle, in the fierce free- 
dom of fair fight, and where the odds were usually against me ; 
when my veins throbbed with the red fluid of lightning, and the foe 
gave me no time for deliberatmn, and no shadow of a choice ; 
when necessity compelled me to kill ; but never, from prudential 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


199 


calculations, never when the dire alternative did not force itself 
upon me.’^ 

“This is news to me,” remarked Carlyle, in tones of more 
withering sarcasm ; “I had vainly imagined that, of all the 
black band, you took the most unalloyed delight in the noble 
profession of robbery I” 

“I confess,” replied Curran, and the cloud on his variable 
countenance changed to sudden sunshine ; “ that this wild life 
has unspeakable charms for both my senses and imagination. 
Its hourly perils, its never-ceasing activity, its thrilling advent- 
ures, and startling events, present the very pictures of my early 
day-dreams, and embody the romance of the boy. I utterly 
abhor its crimes and cruelties ; but I love its fetterless freedom, 
its wanderings among the glorious old woods, its stormy rides 
and starlight vigils, its visons of the gleaming dawn, and golden 
sunset, its music of singing bullets and sounding steel, the wild 
cries of strife, and sonorous shouts of victory. These, and these 
only enchant me, and keep me in the company.” 

“ I fear, that you will soon have more than enough of such 
spicy novelties, unless you learn to be guided by reason, rather 
than fancy,” suggested the captain. 

“Well, the irrevocable day must come, at last,” said the lieu- 
tenant, thoughtfully ; “ for none may enjoy the pleasures of sin, 
without, sooner or later, suffering its punishment.” 

“ Sin and punishment I” echoed Carlyle, in musing, melan- 
choly accents ; “ what are these but idle words ? terms without 
meaning, invented by hypocrisy for the profit of the politician 
and of the priest. Fables to grind the poor into dust, and glorify 


200 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


the proud. Does not the viewless hand of an unknown and 
unimaginable Destiny shape all our actions as much as the linea- 
ments of our visages, or the limbs of our living clay ? Do not 
all our thoughts, and the currents of our inmost feelings, ebb 
and flow, according to the eternal and unalterable laws, govern- 
ing the association of human ideas, with the same uniform irre- 
versible regularity, which guides the pulsations of the heart, and 
the circulation of the blood through the veins and arteries, and 
which presides over the ocean billows from the flaming equinox 
to the ice of the frozen zones I” 

“ Can the fire at will change itself to frost, or the drifts of 
everlasting snow dissolve themselves in genial dew-drops, and 
descend from their Alpine summits, in the music of silver- 
singing rain ? Can the lordly lion, wdiose heart is a volcano, 
transform his burning breath, his proud voice of thunder, and his 
tameless terrible nature, into the timid bleating, and gentle 
docility of the lamb in the farm -yard ? Can a Christian be 
brought up under the regime, of the Crescent, or a turbaned 
Turk in the nursery of the holy Cross I If man be all too impo- 
tent to alter even the hue of his hair or eyes, or the skin-deep 
dye of his complexion, can such a helpless creature be rationally 
expected to change the color of his profound, mysterious passions, 
or the natural tinge of his instinctive disposition ? No, there is 
one great gloomy word, that explains all philosophy, religion, law, 
ethics, ideas, and actions — every problem of life, and every fact 
of nature — and that word is Fatality I 

“ Your theory of itself is but a film of foolish abstraction,” 
replied the other. “ Besides levelling humanity with the atoms 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


201 


of earth, and animals of the flood and field, it ignores an essen- 
tial part of his mental and moral constitution, denying the 
existence of both the will and conscience. If you really believed 
what you so eloquently preach, you would not need to devise 
any precautions against impending perils, but let the iron wheels 
of Destiny roll on, without help or hindrance from your ineffect- 
ual fingers. For cui lono ? What will avail the efforts of an 
insect^s fluttering wing to stir or stay the whirlwind that tosses 
the world, like a feather, on its ruthless raging gyrations ? If 
you had faith in this fantastic creed, you would never shudder 
and moan in your sleep, when the grim ghosts of your murdered 
victims come gliding with pale faces in your dreams I” 

“ It is all the result of the same endless all-embracing Fatal- 
ity,’’ urged Carlyle ; that has given us the imagination to 
manufacture spectres, and people heaven and hell with fancied 
forms, shadowy beings of the brain, with no more reality than 
sylphs of the sunbeam, or the obsolete fairies of the summer 
night’s green, bubbles of moonshine, shapes of morning mist, 
which melt into air at the day-dawn of positive science.” 

“Your sophistry is powerless to satisfy either the head or 
heart,” answered Curran. “It is utterly incredible that the 
Author of the universe in a world of such endless, unbroken, 
sublime harmony, should have interpolated such a startling 
anomaly, as your cruel hypothesis would make man. For, there 
is not one instinct, desire, or innate passion, either in the human, 
or even brute creation, which does not find its fitting sphere of 
objective enjoyment. Lo I the azure heights of the blue, beamy air, 
for the cloud-skimming wing of the golden eagle, while the forest 


202 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AHA. 


and flood below, teem with food for his ardent hunger, and the 
sun-bright plumage of his mate soothes his fierce and fiery love. 
Throughout all the leafy woods, and murmuring waters, populous 
with innumerable shapes of life, can a single bird, beast, insect 
or fish be found, with an appetite of useless torture, without the 
possibility of gratification ? And does not this general rule, as 
immutable as the law of attraction, hold equally in the case of 
man ? The eye delights in colors. Well, yonder, floats above 
us, the cerulean curtain of heaven, lined with silver clouds, and 
freckled with golden fires, while the earth and sea beam with 
tints of eternal beauty, as if an immeasurable rainbow had been 
shivered into fine fragments, and strewed over land and ocean I 
“ The ear asks for melody. Listen to the answer of benignant 
nature, in the warbled tones of a thousand bird-songs, in the 
wild whispers of the evening wind, in the solemn murmurs of the 
pine-tops, in the deep bass of the ocean billows, and more than 
all, in the divine music of the human voice, that can wander at 
will, like some celestial nightingale, through all the notes in the 
scale of harmony.” 

Now, the yearning soul pines for its passion-promised bride, 
and the hot heart throbs with nameless emotion. Nature will 
not deny her own inspired prophecy. Behold I there is beautiful 
woman, in her youthful radiance, the bright fulfillment, the 
embodied dream, the present angel of the former hope. And so 
of every other principle inherent in our mysterious organization 
of mingled mind and matter. All the flowers of the soul bear 
their proper fruit in the season of their happy harvest, unless 
blighted by sin, or false education. If such then be this univer- 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


203 


sal law, without one single failure, whenever, we have the means 
of verification, is it not moon struck madness to distrust it in the 
only case, where the object of the desire lies beyond the reach of 
the senses ? For there is no passion, at once so profound, gen- 
eral, and all-enduring as this burning, boundless want of perpetu- 
ity of existence ; and if it be, indeed, a delusion, then the Creator 
himself must be cruel as well as false, to break before our eyes 
these glimpses of immortal light, only to render the thought of 
darkness and annihilation the more unendurable 1’^ 

Creator I” echoed Carlyle, with a mocking smile ; “ terror 
and imagination made the gods I” » 

“ It would be much nearer the truth, to say, that fear forms 
the unbeliever,” retorted the other. 

“ If your sentiments are so orthodox, why do you not put 
them into practice I” urged the captain, resorting to the final 
argument ad hominem. 

“ The bewildering fascination of your influence prevents me,” 
answered Curran, with a laugh, and then added seriously ; “ I 
often shape out schemes of reformation, especially when alone at 
midnight, and I seem to see my old mother^s saintly smile away up 
among the loveliest stars ; but on the morrow, the sun brings 
back again the fierce tire into all my veins, and I think no more 
of my penitential vows, which vanish in the air, like the dews of 
the morning.” 

At this moment one of the band came in, with manifest signs 
of fear and astonishment depicted on his features : 

“ What is the ill news, now, Dublin Jack ?” inquired Carlyla 

“O, yer honor, the bloody lynchers have nabbed Judge Moore, 


204 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


the two Bartons and Sol Tuttle. The country swarms like a 
bee-hive with the dirty devils.” 

“ They have captured Judge Moore \” repeated the captain in 
tones of amazement ; “ but it will work well for us. General 
Houston will call them to a dreadful reckoning for the daring 
deed, especially if they should hang him, which would not sur- 
prise me in the least.” 

“ You may be sure, they will do it,” affirmed Curran ; they 
will never forgive his successful speculations in land.” 

“Have you seen anything, Jack, of the messenger that I 
seat, last night, after Colonel Miles and his daughter ?” 

“No, yer honor,” answered the robber. 

“ That is very strange,” murmured the chief ; “ they ought to 
have been hern hours ago ; and it is very perilous for them to 
remain, unprotected where they are ” 

The instant afterwards, however, the colonel entered, and 
Carlyle hastily inquired ; 

“ Where is Mary ?” 

“ In the parlor,” responded the father. 

“ Have you introduced her to my sister ?” 

“ Certainly,” was the reply, at which Curran opened his blue 
eyes to the full dimensions of astonishment. 

“ Be seated, colonel,” invited the captain ; “ this is a strange 
state of things !” 

“ Yery extraordinary,” complained Miles, in a gloomy voice. 

“ Did you hear that the regulators have taken Judge 
Moore ?” 

“ Yes, and it was a lucky move for us” 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


205 


“They also caught Jonathan Hutson.” 

Then it is time for us all to commit suicide 1” cried the 
colonel, in fearful agitation ; “ for he will not only reveal all our 
plans, but conduct them to the camp where we keep the stolen 
negroes.” 

“We must arrange somehow to have him shot, before he can 
do it,” suggested the chief. 

“ That will not mend the matter much, after his disclosures. 
No, the thing is up ; the whole country will rise upon us, and 
massacre us like wolves.” 

“ But General Houston, and a strong force of rangers are 
at Nacogdoches, and they will certainly march to quell the 
insurrection.” 

i* 

“ Yes, but they may come too late to rescue dur necks from 
the halter,” said Miles, with a sigh of despair. 

“ I addressed a note to the President, oh the very night, 
when the lynchers organized,” remarked Carlyle. 

“ Then, there may be some little chance left for us yet,” 
replied the colonel : “but for myself, I hardly entertain the 
shadow of a hope.” 

As he spoke a man rushed into the room, covered with wounds 
and blood, and so bewildered with terror, that at first he had 
not the power to articulate a sentence. 

“ Oh, Jim Fink, what has happened ?” exclaimed the three 
bandits in the same breath. 

“ The lynchers have cotch ^em all 1” faltered Fink. 

“Whom have they captured?” shouted Carlyle, almost in a 
state of phrensy. 


206 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Bob Taylor, and twenty of yer best men/^ 

“ Great Heaven 1 did they storm the camp gasped the 
chief. 

We was’nt at the camp.” 

“ Where were you, then, in the name of all that is cowardly 
and foolish ?” 

“Why, heern as how the regerlators wur guine to cotch 
y^ all and swing f up to dry, us thought we’d better heave to, 
and gin f a lift ; but when we fotch up in the dead man’s grove, 
as them call it, and I guess as how ’twill bar a wusser name 
herearter, all in a twinkling, quicker nor y’ could say Jack Rob- 
ison, the bushes all blazed like a burnin’ prairie, and the rifles 
roared behind every tree, and our boys dropped like pigeon- 
shootin’ ; ahd then the rest on ’em squalled fur mercy, and wur 
tooke alive. But misfortinilly I ’scaped. ’Gaze when one big 
feller run up to grab me, ’nuther fool struck at me with his frog- 
sticker, and hit the boss, who ’medately made tracks fur tall 
timber, and so here I is.” '' * • 

“The camp is without a guard, and all the niggers »will get 
away I” exclaimed both the captain and the colonel ; “ who ever 
heard of such simpletons ?” 

“ Oh 1 for the presence of Houston ?” groaned Carlyle ; “ if 
he delays, all will be lost !” 

Suddenly a loud acclamation rent the air in the yard ; “ Here, 
is Roaring Dick I He is worth a dozen men.” And in less than 
half a minute, the great swarthy-faced favorite of the band 
entered the library, with an embarrassed, crest-fallen air, very 
different from his usual glorious swagger. 


CARLYLE AND CURRAN. 


20t 


“Well, Dick, did you see General Houston?” inquired the 
chief in eager haste. 

“Yes, rather too much of him,” answered the ruffian, with a 
lowering brow. 

“ Did you give him the letter ?” 

“Yes, and I wish you could hev seed him readin^ it. He 
ground his tushes, foamed at the mouth, and swore wus nor 
ever I did. His eyes, fur all the world, looked like a, mad 
dog's I” 

“He was furious at the lynchers,” suggested Carlyle. 

“ Furious at the devil I” roared Dick ; “no sich thing. He 
said, that wur it not fur upholdin’ the law, he'd be glad, if old 
Morrow would hang every one of us bandits, and he'd as leave 
help to do it, as not, hisself.” 

“ Perhaps, you made a mistake, and gave him another letter.” 

“No, sir, I gave him the one, what you give me ; but I'll be 
sworn, the direction wur not in yer own handwriting.” 

“ Then somebody must have effected the change in your 
pockety said the chief, pale as death, while the colonel trembled 
in every limb. 

“ I ventured to tell the general that he mout be mistaken in 
the notions he had about people in these here diggins,” added 
Dick ; “ and what do y' spose he done ?'' 

“ I cannot imagine,” was the answer. 

“ He spit a mouthful of tobaccer juice right into my face and 
eyes.” 

“ Why did you not knock him down ?” asked Curran, with a 
laugh. 


208 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


“ If any pusson wishes old Sum knocked down, he’s welcome 
to try the speriment hisself ; fur, by thunder I this here chile 
don’t want to risk it.” 

“We are ruined, without a hope or the possibility of deliver- 
ance I” sighed Colonel Miles, “unless we speedily escape.” 

“ There is no other place to which we can fly,” responded the 
captain ; “ the atmosphere of both Arkansas and Louisiana 
would be as unhealthy for you and me as that of Texas.” 

“ What, then, shall we do ?” asked the colonel, almost 
stupefied with fear. 

“ Stay, and fight it out, to the last bullet in our shot-pouches, 
and the final drop of blood in our veins,” cried Carlyle, in a 
voice of thunder. 

“ That’s the talk,” exclaimed Curran, his blue eyes blazing with 
the red light of battle ; “ huzza I for an honorable death, and a 
soldier’s grave I We will all sleep well, when the war of life 
is over I” 


CHAPTER XYII. 


LUCY. 

It may well be imagined, that the beautiful Mary heard with 
dismay and horror, the proposal of her father, to take up their 
temporary residence at the. block-house of Captain Carlyle j nor 
did the fabulous representation that Lucy was the bandit^s 
sister, tend, in the slightest degree, to allay her apprehensions, 
for she gave no faith to the flimsy falsehood. But the commands 
of the colonel were imperative, and force compelled her to obey. 
Ha7ing never yet beheld the ostensible mistress of the establish- 
ment, much as she had been spoken of in her presence, the maiden 
gazed upon such marvellous beauty with mingled emotions of 
astonishment and admiration, and the surprise was still greater, 
if possible, at the intelligence manifested in her countenance, and 
the winning courtesy of her demeanor. 

“ Come with me to my room, dear,” said Lucy, in accents of 
the most touching tenderness, as soon as Colonel Miles had left 
the parlor. 

“ Let me look at you standing up, a moment,” requested 
Lucy, in the same kind voice, when they found themselves alone 
in her private apartment ; and the two women scrutinized each 


210 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


other's forms and features, with long and earnest attention. A 
stranger, who had witnessed this mutual examination, would 
have been struck, at once, with the similarity and contrast 
between these fascinating females, both models of their charming 
sex, though belonging to different orders of the beautiful. Both 
were raven-haired, and dark-eyed, with faultless faces and fig- 
ures, with slender waists, and round tapering limbs, symmetrical 
in all their proportions, as if two divine dreams of some imagin*a- 
tive artist, in his deep longings for unearthly love, had been 
embodied in these bright beings of the western woods. But the 
bust and bosom of Lucy were fuller and richer, and the wild lus- 
tre of her burning black eyes resembled flashing fire, compared 
with the pure starry light that beamed in the chaste orbs of the 
other. Her lips were also larger and of a deeper color, while 
the golden hue of her complexion glowed with a warmer blush 
than the rose-tints of Mary's lily-white features. In fine, the 
former might have symbolized the ideal of the terrestrial Yenus, 
and the latter would well have represented the celestial goddess 
as the virgin divinity of innocent love, chaste and changeless as 
the very stars in the sky, according to the myth of dual meaning 
invented by the ppets of the young world. 

As the mistress of Carlyle gazed upon the charms of the 
other, a shade of unutterable sadness came over her brow, and 
she murmured mournfully : 

“ I do not wonder now, at the madness of his passion ; you 
are, indeed, so exceedingly beautiful ; but such a sinless angel 
would fall fearfully to wed a devil like him 1 Yet, oh I you are 
transcendently beautiful I" 


LUCY. 


211 


“ But you are much the more beautiful of us two,” answered 
Mary, touched to the heart, by the other’s melancholy voice and 
manner. 

“No, no,” protested Lucy ; “ come, and see ;” and she caught 
the young girl’s arm, and drew her to a large mirror. “ There,” 
she said, with a painful sigh ; “behold the difference. Parity 
lives on your face, like light on the surface of a star ; but mine 
burns eternally with a blush of shame. Your dark eyes are 
loadstars of virgin love ; mine, the wandering meteors of wicked 
passion and the wildest hatred. Your countenance beams with 
blessed memories and holy thoughts ; but mine bears the fiery 
traces of horrible recollections, and unpardonable crimes, the 
footprints of sin and sorrow, which all the rains of heaven, all the 
waters of the sea, could never wash away I” 

She paused, and a pair of bitter burning tears, like drops of 
molten metal, hung on her long raven lashes, while her lips 
writhed convulsively. At length, she remarked in firmer tones : 

“ Be seated, dear ; for in order to gain your confidence, I 
must tell you the strange story of my life, with some facts in the 
history of others. Let me begin, at once ; because, we know not 
! how soon the narrative may be interrupted, since danger and 
death beset us on every side, and tragical events may be impend- 
ing this very hour ; but whatever shall happen, trust me as your 
friend. > 

“ My father,” she commenced, “ was a Spaniard of genuine 
I Castilian descent, who boasted, with what truth, I am unable 
I to affirm positively, that noble blood flowed in his veins, and 
I certainly, he possessed sufficient pride to have endowed a dozen 


212 


RANGERS AND REGUIiATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


peerages, and still have retained enough for the dignity of a 
royal line. He was, in short, a severe haughty man, immeas- 
urably vain of his only child, but utterly destitute of tenderness, 
that essential element of all true affection. Unluckily for him- 
self as well as me, his fortune, having been, for the most part, 
lost in some revolution of his native land, did not correspond 
with his vanity, and this circumstance, doubtless, increased, if it 
did not cause, his habitual sternness and melancholy. 

“ Of my mother, I know nothing, not even her name ; for I 
never dared to^uestion my father on the subject, save once, and 
I shall never forget the wild look of mingled rage and horror, 
and the frightful menace, with which he rebuked my curiosity. 
I cannot tell, at this moment, where I was born, whether in the 
Crescent City, which is the first place, that I remember, or in 
the old country, beyond the sea. 

“ Love is the first want of the infant heart, for which there 
can be no compensation. It is the natural food of the young 
soul as much as the milk of the mother is that of the frail body. 
But alas I this rich inheritance of the poorest slaves, this boon 
of heaven^ enjoyed by the lowest brute animals, was altogether 
denied me. 

“We had one female servant, with several small children, and 
I used to watch with bitter emotions and burning tears, which 
only the susceptible nature of a child can experience, the caresses 
that this African mother bestowed on her homely offspring. I 
v/ould have given worlds for one such kiss, even from her 
swarthy lips ; and employed all the means, that my mind could 
imagine to win her affection, without success ; for somehow, she 


LUCT. 


213 


seemed to entertain a fixed dislike for me, as if she regarded me 
as the rival of her own ebon progeny. 

“ My father’s pride prompted him to anxious cares for my 
education ; but instead of sending me to school with my equals 
in age, as I implored with sobs and tears, he provided me with 
a private teacher still more austere than himself. At last, how- 
ever, the burden of my loveless solitude became lightened. I 
learned to read, and the parent being passionately fond of 
gloomy romances, the daughter was supplied with countless vol- 
umes, well suited to her tastes, it must be confessed, but 
poorly fitted to cultivate proper habits of either thought or 
feeling. 

“ Thenceforth, I was nevermore alone. I passed my days, 
and too often my nights, in that weird ideal world, created by 
the cunning hand of mystic imagination, and reared on pillars of 
mingled moonshine and midnight shadows, more enduring to my 
thought, than any sensible forms, even than all the old grey 
granite of the everlasting hills. I held grim or glorious converse 
with the thousand spectres, the ghosts of the immortal dead, and 
listened to the whispered secrets of every wild passion, that can 
madden the mind, or move the human breast. 

“ Oh I how my heart would burn with desire, or throb with 
nameless rapture, whenever I took up a new novel, and tearing 
open the leaves in hot haste, with trembling fingers, like a hungry 
tiger pouncing on its prey I How I wept when the same fiery 
language of ardent love met my eager eyes, and flashed on, 
leaping, as live lightning, from page to page, while I moaned a 
lingering farewell, as I turned each sheet, to think that my per- 


214 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


feet beatitude of hours had been abridged by, at least, another 
minute. 

“ How I fluctuated, between hope and despair, with the 
changing fortunes of the fond youth and his maiden, rocking in 
fancy, like a small boat on the ’billows of a stormy sea, realizing 
their inmost thoughts, their utmost agony of emotions, as pro- 
foundly as if I had been myself the actual heroine of the story I 
How I blushed beneath the touch of imaginary embraces I How I 
raved with the frenzy of jealousy, and stabbed with the dagger of 
revenge I and was everything by turns, that the wild tragedy 
could render me I In fine, if my father had premeditated to make 
me the very being that I am, and have been, he could not have 
selected any other course of reading and culture, so exactly, 
so inevitably adapted to accomplish such a purpose. 

“Out of all the innumerable heroes that had so deeply inter- 
ested my imagination, I culled the traits which I most loved in 
each, and so fondly cherished them in the depths of memory, 
that they grew together as a harmonious whole, the image of 
my worship, the ideal of my heart. This was my first lover — a 
being of unrivalled beauty, with mystic dark eyes, and ringlets 
of raven hair, and with bravery stamped, as with an immortal 
die, on every luminous feature. I vowed again and again, that 
such should be my bridegroom, and I felt the fixed presentiment, 
that sooner or later I should find him. 

“ Over these fairy and fantastic realms I wandered at will, till 
my fourteenth summer, when a cousin of my father, bearing our 
family name, arrived from old Spain. My feelings of disgust 
will not, even now, permit me to describe this relative, embody- 


LUCY. 


216 


ing as he did, in his single person, all the most revolting traits 
belonging to the most hideous monsters of romance; suffice it to 
say, that Juan Gordo was the ugliest man whom I had ever 
seen, or so much as dreamed of. He was, however, immensely 
rich, and this one fact, in the eyes of my parent, atoned for 
every other deficiency, and accordingly, he soon became his 
special confidant. It would be utterly impossible to paint the 
loathing that I felt for this mass of human deformity, and to 
make the matter worse, he almost immediately manifested a 
remarkable fondness for my society. Go where I would, into 
the parlor, the library, or to walk in the garden, this dragon 
followed me with his persevering attentions, till I fairly deemed 
myself haunted by some fiend in the human shape, such as we 
read of in the old romances. 

“ But the fiery cup of my torture was not yet full. One day 
my father ordered me to dress myself with unusual care, as he 
said, for a drive to the French cathedral. The order aston- 
ished me the more, as neither of us had ever attended any church 
since the earliest dawn of my recollection. However, I was 
greatly delighted also, as I would now have an opportunity of 
seeing something of that gay and glorious world, of which I 
had, as yet, only dreamed ; for my seclusion hitherto had been 
as absolute,^ as if an inmate of an eastern harem. Accord- 
ingly, I put on my most beautiful dress, and crowned my dark 
hair with a radiant wreath of roses, and when I surveyed my 
features in the glass, I blushed at the sight of own loveliness. 

‘ Oh I’ I exclaimed in a burst of passion and pride ; ‘ could I 


216 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


meet with my ideal now, how soon would he throw himself at 
my feet, and claim me for the bride of his bosom I’ 

“ ‘ Come let us be off,’ said my father, as I entered the 
parlor. ‘ Bonita ! bonita I’ exclaimed Juan Gordo, in raptur- 
ous tones, articulating in Spanish, for the monster could not 
speak but a few words of broken English. 

“We three rode away in the carriage, one hired for the occa- 
sion, and indeed we had never before needed such a vehicle, as 
even my parent scarcely ever left the house. In a short time 
we reached the old cathedral, but to my amazement we found 
no one there save a grey-headed man with sinister features, who 
received us with a lurid smile, and a look as of fiendish mockery. 
This I quickly learned, was a Spanish priest. 

“ Suddenly, my father commanded in his usually severe tones : 
“ ‘ Stand up, Lucy, and be married.’ 

“ Had a thunderbolt shivered the roof above my head, my 

astonishment could not have been greater. A feeling of mortal 

\ 

sickness came over me. My heart gave a lightning-like leap, 
and then lay still as a lump of ice. I gasped for breath as if 
in the act of suffocation, and reeling, would have fallen on 
the floor, had not Juan Gordo caught me in his hideous 
embrace. 

“ Strange as it may seem, the contact of that abhorred crea- 
ture revived me instantly. With a convulsive tremor that 
shook all my nerves like an earthquake, I regained sufficient 
strength to withdraw from those hateful arms, more dreadful to 
me than the coil of a rattle-snake. 


LUCY. 


217 


‘Lucy, stand up and be married I’ repeated my father in a 
terrible voice. 

“ Then a new idea occurred to my mind. It must be a mere 
joke, and I seized the suggestion of fancy with the same wild 
hope which fills the heart of the drowning sailor, as he grasps 
amid the breakers, the last plank of a wreck. 

“ ‘ Whom shall I marry T I faltered, with ill-assumed calmness. 

‘“Who, but your cousin here, the wealthy Juan Gordo, and 
a great deal too good for such a romantic Miss as you,^ replied 
my father, with a cruel sneer. 

“ ‘ Me, carissima affirmed the dragon. 

“ I heard no more, but uttering a. frightful shriek, attempted 
to fly from my doom. They caught me, and brought me back, 
and by some means, managed to force me through the forms. I 
Knew it not — knew nothing for long weeks of sunless night, for 
my mind had wandered from its sphere in the lovely light of 
nature, into the gloomy void of madness, and my brain now 
keeps no images from that world of utter darkness, that blank 
abyss of being, the interregnum of both reason and imagination. 
How strange a state ! for the kind nurse employed to tend me, 
during the malady, informed me afterwards that my fancy was 
more busy than ever, and that I talked incessantly of my ideal, so 
that she, good soul, thought I was speaking of some human lover, 
instead of my sweet dream of the heart, born of a thousand 
wild romances I and so did my father and the dragon husband. 

“ When I recovered the use of rational consciousness, I found 
myself in a fine mansion, with the monster, Juan Gordo, by my 
side. All the events of my past life seemed to present themselves 


218 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


at once to my view, but dim, distant and glimmering, like the 
moonlight on some misty shore. I might have regarded the 
whole as the frail fabric of an unsubstantial vision, but for this 
terrible reality of a husband. 

“My power of volition, however, had been weakened by the 
shock, which had unsettled my reason, and I sullenly resigned 
myself to my fate. My hatred for the monster gradually changed 
to a sort of icy indifference. My heart became a tideless sea, which 
no influence could move any more. My ugly consort did not 
happen to possess my father’s instinctive attachment for home. 
On the contrary, he was passionately fond of appearing at pub- 
lic places, and as his jealousy governed him to such a degree, that 
"he could never suffer me to be a moment out of his sight, lie 
necessarily carried me with him to the theatre, churches, and ail 
suitable gatherings, where swarms of people might be found. 
But always, the moment, when we returned, I immediately 
buried myself in my beloved books, and forgot alike the joys and 
sorrows of the weary-working world, for the beautiful beings, 
conjured up out of the viewless air, by those wild wizards^ the 
old romancers. 

t 

“ As my dragon-lord could not bear any sort of printed mat- 
ter himself, and was a perfect bore of inane garrulity, he 
contracted a deadly hatred against these silent but most amusing 
old friends of mine, who deprived him altogether of my society. 
One morning, I was in my room dressing to accompany him to 
the court-house, for the purpose of hearing an important crimi- 
nal case, which had created intense popular excitement. Sud- 
denly, I perceived a pungent disagreeable odor, like the smell of 


LUCY. 


219 


burniDg paper, or linen. Supposing that the house had taken fire, 

I flew into the parlor. You may imagine my agony and dismay, 
when I beheld all my darling volumes heaped up on the grate, 
consuming in a bright blaze, while the dewl, dragon no 
longer, stood fanning the infuriate flame, grinning with infernal 

joy- 

“ I shall never forget the anguish of that moment, surpassing 
anything I have ever suffered, either before or since. As the 
pitiless fire increased, my mute favorites seemed, in their torture, 
to gain the power of speech, and sighed, moaned, murmured, and, 
at last, roared, as if for deliverance, their divine leaves quivering, 
like naked nerves, in the flame, or twisting and writhing like liv- 
ing creatures in pain. What I then did, or said, I know not, 
but' it must have been something madly insulting, for the mon- 
ster slapped me in the face. 

“ Instantly the dead sea of my heart stirred, as if a volcano 
had broken out from its sunless depths. The former hatred 
returned with tenfold violence, and I internally formed a fearful 
vow of vengeance, even while I forced the mockery of a smile 
upon my lips. 

“We then proceeded to the courthouse, filled with the 
beauty and fashion of New Orleans ; and my wealthy husband, 
being a friend of the judge, secured a seat for us on the plat- 
form, in front of the bar. In the state of semi-consciousness, 
into which the incidents of the morning had plunged me, I saw 
but little of what transpired, until roused from a deep reverie by 
a voice that thrilled through my brain and bosom, like the sound 
of a silver bell. I turned my head towards the corner of the bar, 


220 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


whence the raysterious music had issued, and could not altogether 
suppress a low cry of nameless emotion. 

“ There, present to all my senses, stood the incarnation of my 
wildest dreams — the ideal of all imagined beauty — the bride- 
groom, my young yearning heart had so vainly promised He 
had the same dark eyes, the ringlets of raven hair, the same 
bravery of brow, and the identical form and features. I had no 
power to withdraw my eyes from his visage, during the long 
speech, which he pronounced as a counsellor in the cause, no, not 
even when he glanced, in return at me, with evident tokens of 
admiration. The very atmosphere around him aflpeared to 
exercise over me a sort of mystic magnetic influence, a species of 
fascination, as strange as it was irresistible. I felt as if a celestial 
window had been opened in my side, and that a stream of golden 
lightning was flowing from those bewitching eyes directly into 
my wildly-throbbing heart. 

“ But if my soul had been so spell-bound, entranced as it were, 
by the view of his mere person, his wonderful eloquence intensi- 
fied the charm, and completed the conquest. His language was 
more beautiful than that of any novel, which I had ever read, 
and his words burned, flashed, flew, and sparkled like stars. In 
short, I loved him, at first sight, and it seemed to me as if I had 
always loved him. Indeed, he was the first real being that had 
ever interested my previously desert and solitary heart. It is, 
therefore, no wonder, if my love was worship, and that worship, 
madness ! 

“The passion was mutual. He sought an introduction, 
through the judge, to my husband, and finally managed to get 


LUCY. 


221 


inside of our house, but never, save when the man-monster w^as 
present ; for, as I said before, he never let me out of his sight. 
But articulate speech is not necessary for the communication of 
lovers. The essence of all successful courtship is generally con- 
summated by the eye, before the voice breathes one burning 
vow. I loved, and knew that I was beloved, ere a whisper had 
been exchanged between us. 

“ At last, we effected a correspondence by letter, through the 
kind nurse, who had been my companion during the period of 
my derangement, and who now recognized, as she vainly fancied, 
in the present warm suitor, the lover of my imaginary ravings. 

“ After a time, however, the dragon husband, by some means, 
detected this secret intercourse, and his fury surpassed all the 
bounds of both reason and prudence. His jealous wrath was a 
storm, a whirlwind of blows, curses, and bruises. He covered 
ifle with blood from my own veins, and then dragging me to the 
door by the hair, kicked me into .the street, and bade me go to 
my paramour, and tell him of my grievances. 

“ I obeyed the brutal order to the letter — went directly to my 
lover’s oflBce, and related the entire outrage fi-om beginning to 
end. His rage exceeded even that of the man-monster, and 
without uttering a menace, I saw that he was determined on 
seeking some appalling revenge. 

“ That very night, when the city was wrapped in darkness, 
silence, and sleep, two burglars broke into the dwelling of Juan 
Gordo, murdered the proprietor, and carried off fabulous wealth 
in bank notes, gold, and jewels. The leader of the felons was 
Captain Carlyle.” 


222 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Mary could not suppress a faint exclamation of horror at this 
shocking announcement. 

“ And the other,” continued Lucy ; “ dear, have you the 
courage to learn the name of the other murderer and robber ? 
It is necessary for your welfare that you should know it.” 

“Yes,” answered the daughter of Colonel Miles, shuddering 
with the presentiment of the horrifying truth. 

“Was your own father ; and this is the main mystery of Car- 
lyle’s power over him I” 

“ Great God I what a revelation I but I feared as much,” 
gasped Mary with white lips. 

“ I did not view the assassination then as I do now,” said Lucy ; 
“ it seemed to me but sheer justice, and accorded too well with 
many a startling catastrophe in the pages of my dear old 
romances. But alas ! I have proved by terrible experience, that 
there can be no lasting love between criminal hearts, especially 
when a spectral form with gory locks, flits above the bed of 
adultery. Carlyle has violated his solemn promise to make me 
his wife, and now wishes to cast me away for a fresher face. 
But his bitter bridal will be with the skeleton cross-bones of 
death, and the priest shall be the common hangman. Tremble 
not, dear Mary, at my awful words ; for my vengeance will be 
your victory, and the blow which rids me of the false and faith- 
less lover, shall bring the true one to your bosom for evermore I” 
“ And is your hatred so deadly against him now ! Is it, 
indeed, possible, that the most ardent affection can be changed 
into the deepest aversion ?” inquired the young girl, with a look 
of wonder. 


LUCY. 


223 


“ As might be inferred from your present inexperience, you 
cannot comprehend such an astonishing transformation, this mys- 
terious alchemy of the human heart, and Heaven grant, that you 
may never be the wiser ; for no one can learn this infernal 
mystery of the mind, without passing beyond the pale of peace 
and innocence, and forming a compact with the powers of hell. 
But never does the nature become thoroughly hardened, 
supremely wicked, never does the soul burn with a consuming 
flame, which nothing can quench but blood, until it has been 
melted into infinite fondness by the volcanic heat of almighty 
love.’’ 

“ The conduct of your own father surprises me the most of 
all,” said Mary. 

“ I have never been able to account for it,” remarked Lucy, 
in sorrowful tones ; “ unless, indeed, he was actuated by a 
motive of revenge against me, for some real or imaginary wrong 
of my unknown mother.” 

“ It is a terrible tale,” sighed the other. 

“It will be far more fearful, before it is ended,” answered 


CHAPTER XYIII. 


THE TRIVA.L BY TORTURE. 

The morning after so many arrests had been effected by the 
Lynchers, as detailed in previous chapters, William Bolling, 
accompanied by the small party that had rescued him from the 
robbers, arrived at Major Morrow’s, and could scarcely credit 
his own senses, on beholding the immense gathering, the strange 
scenes, and stormy excitement, which he witnessed. Crowds 
of men, boys, and even women, swarmed in the house, yard and 
field, one half of them at least, raving almost wildly as maniacs, 
with mixed emotions of anger, grief, or terror. 

To account for this extraordinary agitation, it must be 
remembered, that in making their captures, the regulators had 
lost several of their favorite men. Jake Johnson, son of the 
parson, had been killed by the dog at Sol Tuttle’s. Mortin 
Morrow had fallen by the hand of the boy ; and Bill Minton 
was stabbed to the heart by Alfred Moore. The wrath and 
horror of their relatives and friends knew no bounds, while 
every member of the organization felt that all had engaged in 
an enterprise attended by deadly personal peril ; that the game 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


225 


must be extremely bloody, and that life and death were the 
stakes for which they must play. 

This frightful fact, for the first time fully realized, horrified the 
timid, but only rendered the brave more reckless. In such a 
state of feeling, the most desperate counsels usually prevail, and 
a majority of the company manifested a strong disposition to 
snatch the cases out of the hands of the judicial committee, 
and subject the prisoners to summary and indiscriminate mas- 
sacre. 

William Bolling heard with dismay the ominous menaces 
murmured by the mob, and shuddered for the consequences, 
when the eloquence of a single man, for the present allayed the 
tumult. The youth happened to be standing at the door, near 
two persons, one of whom seemed to be a stranger, and both of 
them trembled with apprehension for the anticipated tragedy 
now apparently inevitable. 

The elder of the two, who was no other than the Methodist 
parson. Carter, implored the younger ; “ for God’s sake, dear 
brother Baker, do speak to this infatuated people, and persuade 
them to act as rational beings. The assassination of the cap- 
tives would ruin us irretrievably.” 

Alas 1 what can I do ?” said the other in a sad voice ; “ I 
am unacquainted with the multitude, and any advice from me 
I would probably be considered as unpardonable presumption. A 
1 word, the faintest breath of articulated air from even the lips 
I of a fool can raise the whirlwind of popular excitement, which 

I 

the wisest statesman in the world cannot stem. 

“ At all events, it is your duty, as a Christian minister, to 


226 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


warn the members of our own communion against the consum- 
mation of so horrible a crime, urged Carter, warmly. 

“ That is undeniably true,” answered the stranger, “ and I 
will not shrink from the dangerous responsibility, even if I 
should sacrifice my life on the sacred altar of conscience. The 
occasion will have a martyr, and it might as well be me as 
another ; but how am I to gain a hearing ?” 

“ I will show you,” replied Carter, and he immediately 
ascended a large stump, and proclaimed : “ Fellow-citizens, 
Brother Baker, our new circuit-rider, will address you.” He 
then leaped down, and the travelling preacher took his place on 
this unique platform, consecrated for the service of politics by 
the genius of demagogues. 

All eyes were now directed towards the stranger, whose 
striking appearance alone rivetted universal attention. He was 
a blooming, fair-featured young man, with large mystic blue 
eyes, a smooth, soaring forehead, and a countenance of deep 
thought, and ardent, unaffected devotion. His face glowed 
with rich and radiant health, and his noble form, at once large 
and lofty, yet unencumbered with useless flesh, presented the 
true model of the backwoods, combining the strength of the 
mountain bear, with the swift agility of the panther. 

His voice, clear as a bell, yet silvery as the warbled sighs of 
a heavenly harp, although low at first, indeed little more than 
a loud whisper, thrilled through the vast audience, and filled 
every ear and brain with its amazing music. 

He began by painting the terrible condition of the country, 
infested by felons, and on the verge of a servile insurrection ; 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


227 


and the excitement soon became so alarming, that both Carter 
and Bolling feared the precipitation of the very catastrophe 
which he had undertaken to avert. In a few minutes, however, 
after he had gained their confidence, and brought the multitude 
under the mastery of his mind, he suddenly changed his theme, 
and with admirable adroitness, described the necessity of order 
and union, and the ruinous consequences of rashness and blood- 
shed, until prudence prevailed with the timid, and reason over 
the intelligent. 

But unfortunately, at this point of the discourse, the tigers, 
of the human menagerie, grew fearful lest they might lose their 
expected prey, and groans, hisses, and horrible threats rent the 
air, drowning for a brief space, the voice of the speaker. A 
hundred angry tongues cried : “ Take him down I Away with 
the canting hypocrite I He belongs, himself, to the rogues 1” 
and fifty other exclamations, too coarse for repetition. A rush 
was made by some desperadoes towards the preacher, which bis 
friends resisted with great firmness, and there seemed to be 
imminent danger of a general melie. 

At this instant, the mystic blue eyes flashed lightning, the 
face of the young circuit-rider beamed with the light, which burns 
on the visage of the brave in the hour of confliet, as he exclaim- 
ed in tones that sounded above the tempest, like the blast of a 
trumpet ; “ Let the murderers alone to accomplish their work, 
my brethren. They thirst, like wild beasts for human blood I 
let them have mine, if they will. I would rather die than dis- 
grace my holy calling I” 

The might of his words and the majesty of his manner, awed 


228 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


even the ruffians themselves, and inspired all moderate and prudent 
persons to oppose the contemplated massacre of the prisoners. 
The speaker then went on to urge, with all the force of his pow- 
erful eloquence, the necessity of giving the accused an impartial 
trial before the committee. 

For he did not dare assume the loftier ground of leaving the 
matter for adjudication to the regular tribunals of the country. 
Such a mild and merciful proposition would have deprived him 
of all influence, and would have prevented any good that he 
might hope to effect, even with the members of his own denomi- 
nation. 

He finally closed with* a magnificent appeal, a perfect sunburst 
of fiery words, embodying in a small compass the whole of his 
previous argument, and forcing it home to the hearts of his hear- 
ers, three-fourths of whom determined to act on the preacher’s 
counsel, some from conscientious scruples, others from humane 
emotions, but more still, from a cool calculation of causes and 
effects, as bearing on their individual interest, and the ultimate 
success of the mob, in their triumph over the robbers. 

Young Bolling was amazed at the stilling of the foregoing 
storm by the oratory of a single minister, wonderful as he 
himself confessed and felt it to be. And, indeed, no stranger 
educated in more civilized lands, without beholding it, can even 
imagine the influence of itinerant preachers in the woods of the 
West. Following closely in the footsteps of the pioneer, their 
accents, laden with the celestial tidings of mercy and peace, may 
be heard ringing in the leafy depths of the old forest, almost with 
the first reverberating echoes of the axe and the cow-bell 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


229 


Ignorant, it cannot be denied, are many of the missionaries of 
the cross, men of rude appearance, and ruder speech, such as 
would grate harshly on polished ears. But their souls burn with 
the unquenchable fire of sincerity, and their fierce eyes often 
flash with the wild light of the mighty prophet and mystic seer, 
who in ancient days, came from the solitude of the desert, with 
divine messages for man, and breathed them in the ear, not with 
tones of gentle tenderness, but with lips of quivering fire, and in 
accents terrible as thunder. 

And such truly is the travelling minister of the backwoods. 
Unacquainted with science, he knows the more of nature in the 
concrete ; and living half his time in the saddle, alone, without 
other society than his own thoughts, his mind acquires all the 
gloom and grandeur of the primeval forests, and borrows an 
imagery of nameless power from the voice of the elements, and 
the hues of the sunshine, and shadows of the stormy cloud. In- 
nocent of literature, he learns his Bible by heart, and steeps his 
soul in the rich melody of those old hymns, which, like singing 
birds, have sailed down the air of ages from the dim shores of 
distant centuries, repeating the prayers and praises of ancient 
penitent and mystic prophet. He does not corrupt the sacred 
text by polite circumlocution. He does not utter the word 
Heaven in a dubious whisper ; nor is he too modest to name hell, 
except in a periphrasis. His earnestness gives him an irresisti- 
ble energy ; and he kindles enthusiasm among the people, because 
he hurls at them his own heart on fire. 

Swimming the broad river at high flood, wandering in the 
wild forest or ocean-like prairie, without a guide, lying alone at 


230 


RANGEBS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


midnight on the greensward, counting the stars, and dreaming 
of the spirit-shores beyond their golden sands, while the hiss of 
the rattle-snake and the wolf^s long howl, re-echo in his ears, in 
constant peril from ferocious beasts and more savage men, such 
is the Methodist Itinerant of the far frontier, the path-finder in 
the moral desert, the wild hunter of human souls, not for prey, 
but for preservation ; and such was Hiram Baker. 

At length, the great mass of the lynchers made their way to 
the forest, where the committee of twelve had opened their ses- 
sion ; and although the general throng of members had been 
debarred by their own resolution, adopted when they first 
organized, from being present at the deliberations of the council, 
nevertheless, it afforded them all some pleasure, to be within 
view of the scene, although they might not hear a syllable of the 
discussions. And accordingly, they gathered around at a dis- 
tance in the woods, and gazed intently on the small body of men, 
who performed in their own persons, the double office of both 
judge and jurors. 

A few individuals, however, as a matter of grace on the part 
of the leaders, were permitted to witness the proceedings as 
spectators, and among these happened to be young Bolling, by 
the favor of Major Morrow, who now seemed more anxious than 
ever to secure his accession to their band. But by mistake, he 
certainly adopted the worst possible method for success in his 
purpose ; for at first sight the youth experienced feelings of unut- 
terable disgust for most of the committee, and their sentiments 

X. 

soon heightened the emotion to actual horror. 

The long, lean, superlatively awkward and ugly form of the 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


231 


Rev. Benjamin Parker occupied the president’s chair, and his 
naturally white hair, with eyes of the same color, and sharp 
angular features, contrasted ludicrously with the tragical dignity 
of his air, and the affected solemnity of his voice and visage. 
He spoke in accents hollow as the tones of a drum, to the des- 
perado, bristling with knives and revolvers, who acted as a sort 
of general sheriff to the court. 

“Pete Whetstone, bring forward the prisoner, Jonathan 
Hutson.” The huge red-faced officer hastened to obey, and 
piercing the screen of an adjacent thicket, soon returned 
with the ex-clock-peddler in chains, and guarded by a strong 
•posse^ with pistols cocked in their hands. It would be diffi- 
cult to conceive a picture, at #nce, so pitiful and provoca- 
tive of laughter, as that which the Yankee exhibited, on his 
appearance. His long towy hair, clotted with blood, hung in 
tangles around his crane-like neck. His enormous beaked nose, 
and vast chin, turned up like a hook, seemed on the point of 
consummating the wedding, which both had attempted in vain 
for so many years. His countenance worked nervously with fear, 
but his small, brown, bear-like eyes gleamed with a look of cun- 
ning, as if he had already thought of some means to foil his 
enemies. 

“ Jonathan Hutson,” said the president, in his deep sepulchral 
voice ; “ you stand charged with the awful crimes of robbery and 
murder I What say you to the accusation, are you guilty or 
not guilty ? and remember, if you tell a falsehood, you shall be 
instantly hung for that I” 

“ Who says, I done it ?” inquired the culprit, endeavoring to 


232 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


evade the edge of the sharp interrogatory, and raising both his 
fettered hands to scratch his head. 

“ All of us say, that you did it,” replied the president sternly. 

“ That’s a mighty heap of witnesses,” answered Jonathan, 
forcing a dry laugh, determined to try the dodge of simplicity, 
and affect the fool, as far as possible, without carrying it to 
such an extreme, as might lead to detection. This plan in itself 
was both difficult and dangerous, requiring the utmost coolness 
and skill ; but at the moment he could imagine no better, aud 
therefore, had to risk it. 

“ Mr. Hutson, I advise you not to trifle with your life,” 
admonished Parker, with an awful frown ; “answer the question 
propounded by the court ?” 

“ Whur, mout be the court ?’^ asked Jonathan with a wry 
face ; “ I don’t know of any court hereabouts, but Judge Moore ; 
and you’ve got him back thar in the brush, in limbo ; and him 
didn’t ax me ’nuthin at all at all.” 

“We are the court,” proclaimed the president, with an air of 
infinite authority. 

“ La ! what a pile of judges, you hev in this, court !” exclaim- 
ed the accused, with a countenance of well-feigned folly and 
amazement. 

“ Respond to the interrogation, or you shall be hanged, this 
minute cried Parker, as his white eyes reddened with wrath. 

“You say, they charge me with robbery and murder, how do 
I know whether to plead guilty or not, unless you tell me what 
feller they ’cuse me of killin’ ?” suggested the ex-peddler, with a 
blank look of innocence. 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


233 


“ It is alleged, and believed, that you, and several others, 
murdered the family of Brother Marks, and after plundering the 
house, set it on fire, and thus consumed the dead bodies,^^ 
affirmed the president ; “ did you do it or not 

“ I swear,” commenced Jonathan, with an incipient negation, 
when Parker suddenly interrupted the sentence, with an awful 
threat and an artful hint, which cut it off for ever, by changing 
the shrewd Yankee’s tactics. 

“ Do not utter a falsehood,” shouted the hoarse president ; 

we have the proof of your guilt, and if you dare deny it, you 
will not live sixty seconds.” Then turning to the sheriff, he 
ordered ; be quick, Pete, get the rope ; for I am certain the 
prisoner is going to lie ?” 

“ Pve got the fixins here ready,” answered Whetstone, pro- 
ducing from his ample pocket, a huge hempen coil, and making 
a motion to fasten one end around the Yankee’s neck. 

“ Oh I don’t, for mercy’s sake, don’t ?” cried Jonathan, shrink- 
ing back from the proffered noose ; and then he asked in a 
piteous voice, “ suppose, I confess, what then ?” 

“ We will hang you for the crime,” responded the president. 

“ Then, if Pm to be hung for sayin’ no, or hung for sayin’ yes^ 
it don’t seem a devil’s bit of difference which I say,” remarked 
the peddler, with a lurid look. 

Lawyer Rider, now, whispered earnestly in Parker’s ear, and 
the latter again addressed the accused : 

“ Mr. Hutson, if you will disclose all the facts, without 
disguise or equivocation, you shall be pardoned.” 

“ Well then, I acknowledge the corn, I did it said Jona- 


234 RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 

than, and the gleam in his small brown eyes made them resemble 
those of a bear more than ever. 

“ Who were your accomplices ?” 

“ Bill Bolls, and Tom Tennison,” responded the peddler 
promptly, naming two supposititious gentlemen, that neither 
himself, nor any one present, had ever heard of. 

“ Where were they from ‘F 

Jonathan afl&rmed truly, this time j “ I never heard them say.’’ 

“ Where are they now ?” 

“They went away, that night, and I’ve not squinted my 
peepers on them since.” 

“You lie I’’ vociferated the enraged president. 

“ You lie I” echoed Lawyer Rider ; “tell truly, who were your 
associates in guilt, if you would not be swung up in a twinkling.” 

Jonathan turned towards the officious attorney, and at the 
recognition, exclaimed in tones of surprise ; “ Ha I consarn it I 
as I’m alive, thar’s my old partner in the clock business, what 
run off with the hull doings, capital, profits and all, in Carolina ?” 

A titter followed the announcement ; but the learned counsel- 
lor, although he lost every tinge of color on the yellow parch- 
ment of his complexion, while his keen black eyes quivered, like 
wavering points of flame, nevertheless bore up bravely, protest- 
ing loudly ; “ It is false ; I never saw the rogue before.” 

“ Never, mind ; let us proceed with the regular investigation,” 
interposed the president with dignity, and frowning severely at 
the Yankee, he continued ; “ now, sir, is your last chance to 
speak the truth, or die ; for we know, that one of your confeder* 
ates is named Curran.” 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


235 


Jonathan opened his eyes in silent wonder. 

“Pete/’ commanded Parker, “bring Uncle Buck, and con- 
front him with the prisoner.” 

The sheriff took another brief excursion into the thicket, and 
brought forward the white-headed president of the former Negro 
mass meeting, at the unexpected sight of whom, the Yankee 
shook till every bone in his body seemed to rattle with uncom 
trollable fright. 

“ Uncle Buck,” said the chairman, “ did you ever see this 
man before ?” 

“ Sartan, massa,” responded the African with the grin of an 
ape. 

“ Where ?” 

“Tudder night, when he preach bobolition to heaps ob 
niggers in de swamp, and promise ’em to send arter thur wives 
and chillen, a big steam-injun, like a boss, what snorted 
thunder.” 

“ Who was with him ?” 

“ A feller, what ’em called Curran.” 

“There, you may go now, for the present. Uncle Buck,” 
remarked Parker, and then scowling at the Yankee, he thun- 
dered ; “ you perceive that we have evidence as to your accom- 
plices, and that you have lied to us wilfully ; and for this you 
must now die ! Swing him up, boys, immediately.” 

“ Yes, sir,” assented Whetstone, and half-a-dozen powerful 
hands seized the trembling wretch, tied one end of the cord 
around his throat, and threw the other over a low but strong 
limb. He struggled, like a wolf in the toils, writhed as a scor- 


236 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


pion in the fire, and uttered the most mournful cries, and 
beseeching prayers, ever articulated by a human voice ; but all 
in vain. His merciless executioners pulled away at the loose 
end of the rope, until he dangled, six feet in the air I Even then, 
his agony did not cease. He stilL essayed to implore pity, 
twisting his purple lips in hideous contortions ; but the breath 
gurgled in his windpipe, and produced no external sound. 
Directly his features grew black as those of a Negro, and his 
bloodshot eyes rolled wildly in their sockets, and the last spark 
of that strange mysterious fire — life, was about to die out for 
ever, when the president ordered ; 

“ Let him down, and if he is not dead, he will now disclose 
everything.” 

When Jonathan again touched the earth, he lay limber as a 
rag, without the least signs of life or motion ; and young Bolling 
concluded that all was indeed over. But the more humane 
among the lynchers busied themselves for his restoration, chafing 
his hands and temples, and bathing his face copiously with cold 
water until, at length, he revived. 

As soon as he was able to sit upon the ground. President 
Parker addressed him with greater severity than ever : 

“ Jonathan Hutson you have been, a minute ago, on the 
crumbling brink of hell, from which our kindness has snatched 
you, and if it is not your wish to visit the infernal regions 
instantly, you have one final chance to escape the doom, which 
you so surely merit.” 

“I will tell all— everything, that you can ask,” gasped the 
shuddering wretch, more dead than alive, from the effects of fear. 


THE TRIAL BY TORTURE. 


23Y 


** Who assisted you in the murder of Brother Marks and his 
family ?” 

“ Lieutenant Curran.’’ 

Was not Captain Carlyle the leader ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“Were not Sol Tuttle, Judge Moore, Colonel Miles, and the 
two Bartons with you ?” 

“ Yes.’; 

“ Give us the particulars.” 

Jonathan pretended conformity to the mandate, and detailed 
all the facts with surprising speciality, considering that the 
whole was a pure fabrication ; for he knew nothing about either 
the murder, or its perpetrators, and was forced to the confession 
of the monstrous falsehood, by the cruel alternative of immediate 
death. 

“What members belong to the black band of robbers?” inter- 
rogated the president. 

“ The Yankee enumerated all that he could remember. 

“Do not Judge Moore, the two young Bartons and Sol 
Xuttle also act with them ?” 

“ Jonathan scrutinized the stern countenance of Parker, and 
reading there, the necessity of an affirmative response, gave it 
promptly. 

“ Where do the bandits keep their stolen Negroes ?” 

“ In the big swamp betwixt the Sabine and Red River.” 

“ How many fighting men can they muster ?” 

“ If they have a week’s time, five hundred.” 

“ How many in a single day ?” 


238 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ A little more than half the number.” 

At this answer, a murmur of astonishment, not unmixed 
with alarm, arose from all present ; and after it became hushed, 
Parker went on with his examination : 

“ How many slaves have the robbers now in their posses- 
sion ?” 

“If you reckon all in Texas and Arkansas, more than a 
thousand.” 

Here, the president directed Pete Whetstone to conduct 
Hutson back to the company of his fellow prisoners, and to 
guard him with the same care as previously. After he was gone 
a stormy debate occurred, as to what should be done next. 
Major Morrow proposed, that their principal force should march 
forthwith, and make a grand assault upon Carlyle’s block house, 
before the numerous auxiliaries of the band should have time to 
gather. The same view was urged by the chairman, and by 
Parson Dodson, but Carter and Lawyer Rider objected to it as 
amounting almost to madness. Preacher Johnson spoke on this 
side also, and upon the motion being put it was negatived 
by a majority of two votes. 

The next subject of discussion related to the method of pro- 
ceeding with their other- captives. Major Morrow insisted with 
his customary cruel barbarity, that they should be whipped, 
hung, burned, drowned, and frightened into written confessions 
of their guilt, and that these might then be published in the 
newspapers, for a complete justification of their execution before 
the world ; and this plan received the warm support of both the 
president and the Millenarian minister, Dodson ; while Parsons 


THE TRIA LBY TORTURE. 


239 


Carter and Johnson opposed it with all the energy and eloquence 
of humane and honest natures. 

They also found an unexpected ally in the new itinerant, 
Baker, who had listened with silent horror to the infamous pro- 
position and the shameless arguments by which it had been sus- 
tained. But all his burning words and pathetic periods proved 
utterly unavaiFing to avert the calamity. The savage sentiment 
of self-interest was too strong, and the hope of public exculpation 
looked too pleasing, for moral considerations or feelings of 
mercy to weigh heavily with the majority of the committee. 
And so the motion prevailed, by four suffrages. 

Of all the bloody terrors, which attend the reign of lynch-law, 
the method of seeking evidence by torture, is at once, the most 
universal and revolting. I have witnessed many cases of the kind 
on the far frontier, from Missouri to Texas, but never a single 
one without this unfailing feature. It seems, indeed, to be a nat- 
ural and necessary incident to all such organizations, to extract 
proofs from the quiverings of naked nerves, the faint moans of 
agony, the horrible whispers of gasping breath, the mortal pallor 
of death-like faces, and the signatures of burning or bleeding 
hands I An^ even when the doubtful testimony has been 
obtained, when the fatal execution of the real or imaginary 
culprit is to be consummated, it is not performed as an act of 
public justice, but enjoyed as an infernal feast of private revenge 
— a mob-murder, ten thousand times more loathsome than mid- 
night assassination I 


CHAPTER XIX. 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 

The committee of regulators also determined on another rule 
of examination, which, although it did not by any means forward 
their general object, nevertheless tended to render their proceed- 
ings intensely and painfully dramatic They resolved to question 
all the prisoners together, in the presence of each other, hoping, 
perhaps, that the terrors of the more timid, would operate to 
shake the firmness of the bravest, so that all, if possible, might 
be induced to sign a common confession. And accordingly the 
president ordered the sheriff, and his well-weaponed jposse, to 
bring forward, at once, the whole body of captives. 

When the desperadoes, acting under this imperative mandate, 
presented the different persons accused before the council, a 
more striking contrast in physical appearance, countenance and 
demeanor, was probably never before witnessed, and could not 
fully be imagined. Every deep feeling of the heart, every fierce 
emotion of the mind, seemed unmasked, in all the vividness and 
force of undisguised naked nature. Every prisoner revealed 
in the lines of his face, in his voice, air, and attitude, the true 


THE TRIAL AN EXECUTION. 


241 


stuff within him. The young brothers, John and William Bar- 
ton, showed all the effects of craven fear, their slender forms 
quivering, like two reeds in a strong wind, their complexions 
being literally white as the snowy linen of their own shirts, and 
their light blue eyes shrinking from the stern gaze of their piti- 
less judges. Both were dressed in costly suits of black cloth, 
with hats of the same tint, brushed smooth as the surface of new 
velvet, and they wore massive gold watch-chains, and rich rings 
sparkled in the sunlight on their fingers. But these ornaments, 
and the fashionable character of their clothing, only rendered 
the terror depicted on their visages, the more painfully impres- 
sive. 

jN'everth.eless, these lovers, who had expected to lead their 
beloved brides to the altar, on the evening of that dreadful day, 
in this, their distressing and dangerous situation, received the 
most convincing evidence to prove the wisdom of their choice. 
For the two young girls, Eliza and Alice Ewing, with their 
widowed mother, had followed their hearts’ favorites to the 
headquarters of the lynchers, and now stood bravely by their 
sides, as well for witnessess as comforters. Indeed, they mani- 
fested much higher courage than their suitors ; for although 
their fair and comely cheeks had lost some of th’eir radiant rose- 
hues, their full, round figures did not tremble, and their dark 
blue eyes shone with the light of tenderest, truest love, but 
mingled with the fiercer fire of indignation. 

The uncle of the Bartons, Judge Moore, seemed the living- 
personification of stern, uncompromising, but insulted dignity 
and virtue. His scrupulously precise black dress, entirely desti- 
ll 


242 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


tute of ornaments, his high, prominent forehead, and large, bald 
head, his severe haughty cast of countenance, and those proud, 
penetrating eyes, contrasted with the coarse vulgar crowd of 
regulators around him, made him look like a king among clowns, 
an eagle environed by a flock of vultures, a lion in the presence 
of hideous wolves or jackals. 

Neither was he unattended by affection as profound and 
ardent as any passionate love that ever beat in the human 
bosom. For, notwithstanding his threats, entreaties, and even 
commands, his beautiful daughter, the gifted and accomplished 
Jenny, had left the funeral of her murdered twin-brother, to share 
the imprisonment, and if practicable, to avert the fate of her adored 
parent. Her features had lost every tinge of her usually rich 
color, as if formed from a marvellous mixture of vermilion and 
unsunned snow, and now the latter hue predominated, till she 
appeared pale as a corpse. With her peerless blue eyes, so 
large, deep, and dream-like, shining through a shower of tears, 
and her exquisite head, sunned all over with bright golden curls, 
and bowed down towards her breast, in those sable robes of 
mourning, she might have been mistaken by a stranger .for 
some beautiful statue of immortal grief. 

Bob Taylor, one of the real bandits, offered to the view a 
very different aspect. His great, gigantic form, and coarse, 
florid features, his small twinkling eyes of reddish grey, his 
tiger-like countenance, and even the tangles of his fiery hair, all 
expressed savage ferocity, and reckless daring. One of his 
enormous arms had been broken by a rifle bullet, in the conflict, 
which effected his capture. The wounded limb bound up by a 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


243 


common cotton handkerchief, and hanging loosely by his side, 
must have given him excruciating pain, but he betrayed no indica- 
tion of the fact, by external tokens. 

The picture of Sol Tuttle, may be sketched in few words. 
His entire countenance evinced the firmness of the genuine 
hero overtaken by adverse fortune ; but unsubdued, and still 
defiant. It was the sublime stoicism of the Indian warrior, 
without sign of anger or fear. Only his dark eyes had been 
shorn of their merry twinkle, which was replaced by a nameless, 
gleaming fire, that seemed to pierce the beholder through, as 
with red-hot arrows of lightning. 

A considerable change, however, had come over the hunter's 
brave-hearted boy. His bright black eyes were dim from 
recent weeping, and all his features betrayed anxiety and sorrow. 
The feelings of the child had resumed their sway over his mind, 
and sad memories of mother, sisters, and the beautiful babe in 
its cradle, flitted before the eye of his young imagination, 
mingled with pale spectres, the fear-fancies of the coming doom. 

“ Prisoners,” said the president, clothing his voice in its most 
ghostly accents ; “one, and all, ye stand here charged before 
this honorable court, with the crime of wilful murder, in fact, 
with the assassination of our dear brother Marks and his 
family 1 We have full proof of your guilt, and if ye add to 
your enormous crime, the sin of falsehood by a denial, ye shall 
be hung outright I What say ye ? are ye guilty, or not ?” 

The females uttered half-suppressed cries of horror, at this 
appalling announcement, but none of the men responded, by a 
word. The two Bartons reeled, as if about to fall, and the boy 


244 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


burst into tears ; but Bob Taylor scowled like a devil, Sol Tut- 
tle pierced the chairman’s soul with his keen dagger-eyes, and 
Judge Moore cast upon him a look of lofty disdain. 

“ I move that the question be propounded to each criminal 
separately,” interposed Parson Dodson. 

“ I second the motion,” added Lawyer Rider, and the propo- 
sition being put to the committee, became a law. 

“ Bob Taylor,” demanded President Parker ; “ are you guilty, 
or not guilty ?” 

“ Go to the devil, yer daddy, and ax him, y’ ugly cuss of an 
old he-wolf,” shouted the gigantic robber, shaking the fettered 
fist of his sound arm at the chairman, with the aspect of a 
wounded tiger, ready to spring upon its prey. 

“ Answer the question, or be hung in half a minute 1” 
exclaimed Parker, in a still more awful voice. 

“ If I had you by yerself in the bushes, I’d poke the answer 
into yer cowardly gizzard, fur you’ve no more heart nor a gan- 
der,” replied Bob Taylor, grinding his teeth. 

“ No more ; swing him up, boys I” said the president, lurid in 
the face with a passion that rivalled that of the desperado. 

And the order was instantly obeyed. Pete Whetstone and 
his official assistants, fastened the fatal noose around the bandit’s 
neck, and hoisted him aloft in the air. Young Bolling listened 
in vain for the mandate to let him down, as in the case of Jona- 
than Hutson. In a short time, the limbs of the culprit ceased 
to quiver, and he hung a hideous corpse in the . sunlight, which, 
gleaming through intervals in the emerald foliage above his 
head, gave his fiery red hair the appearance of burning gold. 


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THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


245 


* ‘ Tie the rope at the foot of the tree, and let the body 
remain as it is, for a warning to his wicked accomplices 
directed President Parker — which was done. And so this fright- 
ful vision of the loathsome dead, was fixed there, dangling in 
the air, during all the subsequent investigation. 

The chairman next addressed the elder nephew of Judge 
Moore : " John Barton, are you guilty, or not guilty 

“ I swear before that God, who made me, that I am innocent 
of the charge,” answered the youth, in a tolerably firm tone, but 
pallid as that ghostly corpse, which grinned like a skeleton, above 
his head. 

“ I move that this one be drowned exclaimed Major Mor- 
row, and his cruel grey eyes glittered like those of a wild cat. 

“ I second the motion,” said the Millenarian preacher Dod- 
son, and the resolution prevailed. 

The signal being given, Pete Whetstone and hispo55e seized the 
prisoner, in spite of his wild cries and entreaties, tore him from the 
arms of his promised bride, and bearing him into the adjacent 
lake, held his face under water, until he ceased to breathe or 
struggle. Under the direction of the president, they then 
brought him out, and after some time, succeeded in his resusci- 
tation. 

It would be impossible to delineate the grief and terror of the 
females, while this savage torture was being consummated ; the 
deepest, and most unendurable woes, as well as the radiant rap- 
tures of the highest joy, have no adequate terms for their utter- 
ance, and must, therefore, be left entirely to the imagination. 
Indeed, such was the emotion of the fair Eliza Ewing, that when 


246 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


they plunged her lover in the lake, she would have thrown her- 
self into the water to drown with him, had she not been forcibly 
restrained by some of the lynchers themselves. 

To prevent the embarrassment caused by the acts and feelings 
of these feminine spectators, Attorney Rider proposed that they 
should be removed ; but the instant, when he presented the sug- 
gestion, all the three young girls cast themselves at the feet of 
the frowning president, imploring with tears of unutterable 
anguish : 

“ Oh 1 for pity’s sake, let us stay, and we will not speak or 
move again I” 

For such is often one of the strangest mysteries of the hu|nan 
heart. It can endure to behold its most beloved ones suffer the 
keenest pangs of torture — hang, drown, burn, and die, while every 
pain is repeated with equal agony in its own shuddering core, 
rather than feel the wilder, the utter despair, of absence and 
separation I 

The prayers of the females were granted, under a stern admo- 
nition from the chair, that if they articulated another syllable, 
or interfered any further with the regularity of the proceedings, 
they should be immediately expelled by violence. 

“John Barton,” said Parker to the pallid, half-drowned 
youth ; we have seen proper, in mercy to offer you one more 
opportunity to tell the truth, and if you do so, we may spare 
your life. 

“ Are you guilty ?” 

An awful tremor shook the young man’s bosom, as he 
responded in faint, almost inaudible accents : 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


24t 


“Yes.” 

“ Were not your brother William, Judge Moore, Captain 
Carlyle, Lieutenant Curran, and Sol Tuttle, your associates in 
the criminal deed 

Barton wrung his hands in mournful silence. 

“ Do you see that ?” interrogated the president, pointing his 
long bony finger at the corpse blackening, overhead, in the sun- 
beams ; “ reply to my question instantly, or you shall take your 
place by its side I” 

“The youth gasped a hissing whisper, which the chairman 
interpreted as a “ Yes.” 

“Now be quick, sign this paper,” commanded Parker, and he 
handed the other a written confession, and a pen filled with ink, 
from a horn bottle in his pocket. 

Barton attempted vainly to read the document, for a cloud of 
mingled blood and fire wavered before his eyes, and his fingers 
trembled, like the flame of a candle in the wind, and shook the 
sheet till it fairly rattled. 

“ Sign it I” thundered the president. 

The young man tottered to a fallen pine tree, and scrawled 
his name, in a hand, that told its own tale of unutterable horrors. 

“ William Barton, are you not also guilty ?” inquired Parker, 
turning to the younger brother. 

Sol Tuttle interposed ; “ Don't you let nobody hev any wit- 
nesses it this kangaroo court ?” 

“ Take that for your insolence,” shouted Major Morrow, as 
he slapped the hunter's face. The latter colored deeply with 
shame and indignation ; but replied calmly ; 


248 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ If my hands wur not chained, you would sooner attack an 
old he-bar with yer naked fists nor me. Howsumever, that^s 
allers the way with cowards ; they fight them what can’t duffend 
thurselves, and fly frum a rooster, onless his spurs hev been cut 
off.” 

Judge Moore now spoke for the first time, in his usual severe 
voice, but with a contemptuous smile : 

“ I beg leave to suggest, as amicus curia, that Mr. Tuttle is 
correct in the legal point, which he has just presented to the 
consideration of this august tribunal. For in all courts of what- 
ever name or grade, civilized or savage, parties are allowed to 
offer their proofs, if they choose, and no one is ever condemned 
without a hearing. What says prosecuting Attorney Rider to 
this view of the case ?” 

“ The remark is perfectly true,” assented the Shelbyville law- 
yer ; “ all judgments should be secundum allegata et 'probata, and 
I move, that we now adopt the rule, if I can get a second.” 

“I second the motion,” exclaimed parson Carter eagerly ; and 
a wrathful debate followed. Preacher Johnson also defended 
the mild and merciful proposition, and the young itinerant, 
Hiram Baker, literally thundered, with all his eloquence, on the 
same side. But the measure was opposed with ferocious energy 
by President Parker, Major Morrow, and his brother-in-law 
Minton, as well as by the Millenarian prophet. 

Upon the vote being taken, the committee stood equally 
divided, and the memlDers seemed on the verge of resorting for a 
decision to blows, when Pete Whetstone suggested a compro- 
mise : 


THE TEUL — AN EXECUTION. 


249 


** Jist go on, and try the cussed critters in the old way fust, 
and then let 'em hev thur own witnesses arterwards j aud if you 
don't do it. I'll tell the boys what yere about, and they'll shoot 
all the tarnal rascals, like hogs ?" 

The brutal menace produced its effect, and in order to prevent 
a worse catastrophe, the more humane regulators modified their 
proposition accordingly, hoping in the end to attain their object, 
when the torture being over, the prisoners should be permitted 
to introduce their evidence in defence, although this method 
would exhibit the singular anomaly of allowing the plea of guilty 
to be subsequently controverted by the accused. Nevertheless, 
they might solace themselves with the reflection, that the whole 
trial, from beginning to end, was a monstrous mockery of all 
law, justice, and even common humanity I 

Order being restored, the white-eyed president again interro- 
gated : 

“ William Barton, are you guilty, or not ?" 

** Say yes," whispered Alice Ewing, in his ear ; “it may save 
your life." 

“ I am guilty faltered the youth, with pale lips. 

“ Has your brother given truly the list of your accomplices ?" 

“ Yes." 

“Then sign this paper, as your free and voluntary confes- 
sion," commanded Parker. 

Barton took the lying document, and inscribed his name, with 
more firmness, than had been evinced by the other, as he had 
not passed through the same appalling scene of fear and physical 
suffering. 


11 * 


250 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


Parker, now turned to Sol Tuttle, with a more awful counte- 
nance than he had yet assumed, as if he anticipated a more 
stubborn resistance, proclaiming : 

“ Sir, you have heard the charge, and have witnessed the 
acknowledgment of your guilty confederates, what say you, 
guilty or not guilty ?” 

“ You know as well as me, that Pm a darned sight more inno- 
cent than you, you infarnal, white-eyed, hooked-nosed, tow- 
headed, spindle-shanked, hang-dog old bag of bones. There 
ain’t enough of meat on yer carkiss to feed a sick buzzard, nor 
true grit enough in yer cowardly heart to make fight at a lame 
gander. If my hands wur ontied, I’d whup the whole on 
ye I” 

“ I move that we burn him I” exclaimed Major Morrow, and 
every freckle on his face seemed transformed into a flake of fire, 
in the heat of his terrible wrath ; and his cunning, cruel grey 
eyes glowed like live coals. 

“ Brother Dave will burn you sooner than you’ll be ready fur 
it I” retorted the hunter, with a lurid smile ; “ he’ll be wus nor 
a Comanche, and will dog yer tracks like a bloodhound 1” 

“ I move that we burn him !” again bellowed the major ; “if 
you don’t, by Heaven 1 I’ll shoot him, this minute I” and he 
snatched a pistol from his belt, and cocked it at his enemy’s 
breast. 

“ Me and brother Dave both know a secret of sumthen you 
did in Missouri, and if you wur to kill me in sich a cowardly 
manner as this, he’d be sartan to tell on ye,” said Sol with a 
mocking smile. 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


251 


The major turned suddenly pale, and the weapon of murder 
vibrated perceptibly in his hand. 

“ Come close to me, and I’ll tell ye what it is,” affirmed the 
hunter ; “ don’t be skeered, I’ll not bite ye, fur I’m not fond 
enough of old sinner’s meat to try my tushes on the likes of 
you.” 

Morrow approached, and Sol whispered a single word in his 
ear, which operated like some infernal charm of magic. The 
lyncher’s knees rocked under him, as if he were standing upon 
an earthquake. His very lips became livid ; and he bit his 
tongue, and tore his own flesh with his nails, like one affected 
by the madness of hydrophobia. Even the pistol fell from his 
quivering fingers, with a loud explosion upon the ground. 

Everybody was astonished at this singular scene; but the 
Millenarian Dodson, determined that the main business should 
proceed, exclaimed ; 

“ I second the motion for burning I” 

“Yes, and you had better git at it in a hurry,” remarked Pete 
Whetstone, with a savage menacing grin ; “ fur our boys, out 
thar in the brush, are very oneasy, and they’ll snatch the fun 
from yer hands, if you don’t mind yer cards.” 

“ The president put the question, and declared it carried, not- 
withstanding, the earnest remonstrances of all the members pos- 
sessing one particle of either shame or humanity. This resolution, 
however much it might be regretted and condemned by the 
minority, did not excite any surprise ; for wherever the murder- 
ous code of lynching prevails, fire is a favorite instrument of 
torture, as well as of death, especially in desperate cases. 


252 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Indeed, there seems to be a sort of satanic sympathy between 
passionate cruel natures and that mysterious element that we 
call fire, and which is the most vivid symbol of destroying force, 
and pitiless rage, whether it roars like a hurricane, in the con- 
flagration of capitals, or sweeps with a broad burning besom, 
the grassy surface of the prairie, or shoots up its tall tongues of 
wavering flame, from the crater of the volcano, licking the lurid 
clouds, or breaks in the thunderbolts, that shiver the most solid 
cliffs into atoms. Everywhere, it still represents, ruthless, end- 
less, all-victorious power, at once the mightiest and most merci- 
less thing in the sphere of human experience ; and it cannot be a 
matter of wonder, that the imagination of man in all ages, has 
made it the chief pillar and principle of hell itself ; for there is 
something, indeed, truly diabolical, both in the eternity of its 
strength and the terror of its tortures I 

Under the direction of President Parker, a blaze of dry sticks, 
and pine-knots, was immediately kindled, and half-a-dozen strong 
desperadoes seized the hunter and held his hands near the flame, 
until they were burned all over to a blister ; but by an astonish- 
ing effort of will, the victim suppressed all indications of pain. 
Great drops of sweat rolled down his swarthy cheeks ; but not a 
nerve trembled, and he uttered neither moan nor cry. 

They then brought him back, and placed him again in front 
of the president, who demanded sternly : 

“ Will you now confess 

“ Never I” answered Sol, in a voice of sublime firmness ; 
“ never will I own such a damning lie ; no not if you wur the 
devil hisself, instead of his agent, and yer fire wur yer hell 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


253 


‘*We will spare your life, if you will acknowledge.” 

“ It’s a lie I” said Sol, scornfully ; “ you can’t ketch this bird 
with sich chaff. You want my name to the paper of confession, 
to show, and then I’d be hung like the rest on ’em.” 

“We will all pledge ourselves to the contrary,” urged 
Parker. 

“ I wouldn’t give one chaw of tobacker, fur any of yer prom- 
ises,” said Sol, with a smile of bitter sarcasm. 

“ Take him and burn his feet, this time I” ordered the 
chairman. 

Once more, the savages grasped him, drew off his moccasins', 
and held his ancles near the roaring flame. At the very instant, 
however, an event occurred to interrupt their infernal sport. 

Suddenly, from the bushes beyond the lake, at the distance of 
two hundred yards, a sharp report emanated, a wreath of blue 
smoke was seen curling up lazily in the sunny air, and the des- 
perado, Pete Whetstone, pitched head foremost into the flame, 
where he was about to roast the victim I A wild cry of alarm 
and horror arose from all the spectators of the shocking tragedy, 
and the ;posse of the fallen sheriff broke and fled into the thicket, 
as if a thousand guns bad been cocked at their heads. 

So great was the general consternation, that a minute elapsed 
before anybody thought of dragging the prostrate lyncher out 
of the fire, and when they did so, it was found, that a rifle ball 
had perforated his heart I 

“That is Uncle Dave I” exclaimed the boy. Jack Pandolph, 
as soon as he perceived the roar ; and the declaration of Sol 
himself confirmed .his son’s statement, as he cried : 


254 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


“I told you, Major, that my brother wur wuss nor a 
Comanche P' 

“ Pursue him I take him dead or alive exclaimed the presi- 
dent ; and hundreds started away to execute the order, but 
after an hour’s search, no trace of their bold and dangerous 
enemy could be discovered. Indeed, so very dense grew the 
green bushes and tangled vines, that the lynchers might have 
passed within three steps of a lurking foe, without finding him. 

As their present situation had just been proved to be so peril- 
lous, the regulators determined to change their place of meeting 
to Morrow’s residence, where they immediately renewed their 
session, in the large parlor. 

The president, for some reason, adjourned the examination of 
the hunter, and commenced that of Judge Moore, propounding 
the same invariable question, as to guilt or innocence. 

“ I am guilty of buying up all the vacant land, that I can 
meet with, and have the money to pay for. I confess it, and 
am willing to sign a paper stating the fact,” answered the 
Judge, with an air of blended pride and scorn. 

“ Respond, sir, to the accusation,” commanded the president, 
scowling ominously. 

“ I have fully replied to your real charge,” said the Judge ; 
“ for disguise it as you may, the true cause for the hostility of 
your dirty gang against me, is my success as a speculator in 
lands.” 

“ That subject is not up for discussion at present,” rejoined 
Parker, “ and I insist upon a categorical affirmative or negative 
to my interrogatory.” 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


255 




Perhaps you would like to know who is my secret partner 
and joint proprietor with me in all the real estate which stands 
recorded in my name,” suggested the judge, with a singular smile. 

“ No ; but answer the question 1” threatened the chairman. 

“ If you only knew my partner, you would plunge your own 
hands in the fire, rather than harm a hair of my head,” 
remarked the judge, with the same significant, steady smile. 

“ Who, then, is your partner, in the devil’s name ?” cried the 
president in a towering passion. 

“ General Sam Houston.” 

Had a sudden earthquake shaken the house from its founda- 
tions, the dismay and surprise could hardly have been greater. 
At the articulation of that distinguished name, the bravest held 
their breath, and the frightened members gazed silently in each 
others pale faces, to read there the common thought, “ we are 
ruined I” 

The more moderate and humane now seized the propitious 
moment to press rational and merciful counsels. Parson Carter 
renewed his motion for a regular legal investigation, and the 
production of mutual proofs for and against the accused. All 
those who had previously voted with him supported the proposi- 
tion with increased ardor, and several others changed to the 
same side. Even the terrified president himself wavered. 

But, unfortunately, the ruflBans without, who flocked to the 
doors and windows, soon discovered what was going on, and 
determined not to be foiled in their expected feast of revenge. 
They raised a deafening clamor, and uttering awful menaces, 
urged the committee to proceed as they had commenced. 


256 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


The itinerant Baker whispered in Carter’s ear, Brother, 
withdraw your motion for the time ; our only chance in favor 
of justice and humanity is to delay the tragedy as long as 
practicable, in the hope that something may happen finally 
to prevent it.” And the parson acted immediately on the 
advice. 

“ How are we to be assured that you have told us the 
truth ?” faltered President Parker, recovering, in some degree, 
from his stupor of fear. 

“ General Houston is on his way to this country from 
Nacogdoches, and you can ascertain the facts from his own 
lips,” answered Judge Moore, still smiling. 

“ Then, by Heaven I let us hang Sam Houston himself I” 
exclaimed Major Morrow, in accents of the utmost rage. 

“Hang the President of the Republic I” ejaculated the judge, 
with a mocking laugh. 

“Yes, yes ; hang you both on the same tree I” thundered 
a hundred wild voices from the door and windows. 

“General Houston is coming, attended by three hundred 
rangers, and has called out all the militia of the Red Lands. 
Will you hang all of them?” exclaimed the judge, with a 
triumphant look. 

This remark operated upon many as a thunder-shock ; but a 
majority of the reckless desperadoes shouted, “ It is a lie ! and if 
it be so, we can whip them all. Huzza ! for the free-State of 
Tanaha for ever 1” 

“ If you do not plead guilty, if the court were so disposed, 
they could not save you. Listen to the exclamations of the 


THE TRIAL — AN EXECUTION. 


257 


mob, and be wise, before it is too late,” insisted Parker, in per- 
suasive tones. 

“ Do, I implore you, my dearest father,” said the beautiful 
Jenny, kneeling before him, and bathing his feet with her tears. 

“ I would rather, any day, die a true and brave man, than 
live eternally a liar and coward I” he answered, firmly. 


CHAPTER XX. 


THE RANGERS. 

No human soul can ever know either its own power, or its 
own weakness, until it encounters the crisis of destiny capable 
of testing the fact. There are mysterious and mighty energies 
in every mind, latent forces, amazing faculties to do and to 
endure, which, like the secret, central fires of the earth, lie 
dormant and undeveloped, if the shock of the earthquake comes 
not to call them forth, to free them from the waveless, lethean 
lethargy of common life. It is this circumstance which renders 
it so difficult for us to comprehend the history of heroic ages, to 
imagine the lofty actions of arms strung with nerves of ignited 
steel, and the terrible daring of hearts alive with lightning. We 
must have some insight into the hidden depths of our own nature 
in order to realize fully the awful legends of patriot and martyr, 
and the brave tales of the jvild backwoods. 

When man is liberated from the restraints of law, when the 
strong fetters of custom, habit, and education have been broken 
from his hands, when he is confronted, face to face, with the 
scowling forms of danger and the black shadows of death, of 


THE RANGERS. 


259 


which he had previously only dreamed as unreal phantoms, then 
he shows, at once, all the naked, undisguised divinity, or devil, 
lurking in the vast abyss of his bosom, and displays the most 
marvellous virtue, or amazing crime. 

“I would rather die, any day, a truthful and brave man, than 
live eternally a liar and coward!” Such was the last answer 
and final resolve of Judge Moore when the lynchers presented 
their frightful alternative of confession, or fiery tortures and a 
disgraceful tomb beneath the gallows-tree. And yet this man, 
during his life hitherto, immersed in the pursuits of trade and 
money-making, had evinced no signs of exalted prowess, or more 
than ordinary firmness of character. He had not even distin- 
guished himself in field or foray, when the Texan revolution called 
all the patriotism and chivalry of the land to fight the glorious 
battles of their country. Indeed, he had still gone on, amidst 
the storm and strife,with his darling speculations to achieve a 
fortune, and had acquired a^reputation for personal timidity, 
which strangely contrasted with his present undaunted conduct. 

At the moment of uttering his defiant response, the appear- 
ance of the Judge was truly sublime. An electric spark seemed 
to leap, like lightning, from the folds of his massive brain, 
flashing in his blue eyes, glowing in his stern features, swelling 
with lava-currents the valves of his powerful heart, and spread- 
ing to the remotest extremities of his frame a fiery flush of 
irritation. 

But hardly had he spoken, when a deafening shout, a perfect 
tempest of horrible threats and curses thundered in the adjacent 
yard, and circulated among the crowd, till the tumult resembled 


260 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


the roar of ocean breakers, mingled with the cries of rage and 
shrieks of agony, such as resound on the field of battle, when 
charging columns cross their bayonets in bloody strife, while 
high above all, might be heard the piercing wail of female voices, 
from heart-strings quivering for the loved and lost. 

The wagons had just arrived with the gory corpses of young 
Johnson, and the son and nephew of Major Morrow. Every 
spectator, and even the committee rushed out to survey this 
new horror, so far transcending all the terrible scenes, which 
had yet been witnessed. The mothers and sisters of the dead, 
giving way to the wildest madness of grief, increased the furi- 
ous passions and ungovernable excitement of the multitude, 
until the screaming, menacing, howling throng might have been 
mistaken for a mass meeting of fiends in pandemonium, rather 
than an assembly of human beings in a civilized land. 

Suddenly, the hoarse voice of Major Morrow exclaimed in 
tones of awful distinctness, heard even above the roar of that 
storm of burning breath ; “ blood for blood, boys 1 let not the 
assassins of our sons and brothers live one moment longer I ” 

And five hundred fiery lips, in accents of phrenzied wrath, 
echoed that appalling cry ; blood for blood I ” as they swarmed, 
with diabolical visages, and flaming eyes around the door. 

“Now is the time for true men to die 1 ” said Hiram Baker, 
as he snatched a revolver from the belt of Parson Carter, and 
threw himself between the prisoners and their doom, thundering 
in the face of the astonished desperadoes ; “ you shall not prova 
yourselves to be devils I you enter not here, but by passing ovet 
my dead body. 


THE RANGERS. 


261 


His lofty look, the inconceivable sublimity of his brave bear- 
ing, awed the ruffians, and inspired the few friends of humanity 
with his own determined courage. Young Boiling, and half a 
dozen others, with cocked pistols flew to his side, all equally 
determined to triumph or fall with him. 

But the noble conduct of Parsoi^ Johnson had the greatest 
influence of all, to prevent the impending calamity, as with 
pallid features, and streaming eyes he stood in the centre of the 
door, with bowie knives and pistols bristling before his breast, 
and pointing a tremulous finger at the corpse of his own beloved 
boy, he exclaimed in accents of unutterable emotion ; “ Lo I 
there, I too have lost a child, the idol of my heart, the very 
hope and stay of my life ; but I would rather that every remain- 
ing member of my family should be shrouded on the same bloody 
bier, than behold the commission of a cruel homicide, such as 
would brand us all, and even defile our country, with the black- 
est stains of eternal disgrace ! Wait patiently, I implore you, 
in God’s name, for the sober action of the committee, whom you 
have voluntarily sworn to obey. But rest assured, if you mas- 
sacre them, we will also die with them, and many of you will 
accompany us to the same gory grave.” 

“He tells the truth,” cried all the Methodists among the 
multitude ; “ let us follow the good preacher’s advice.” 

Major Morrow himself saw the danger of proceeding further 
with his ruthless purpose, and assisting to allay the wild excite- 
ment which his words had caused, a degree of order was, at 
last, restored, and the council again commenced their investiga- 
tion. 


262 RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 

“I move/’ said the Millenarian Dodson, “that Judge Moore 
be scourged until he confesses his guilt.” 

“ You deserve the lash on your own brute’s back for such a 
suggestion !” ejaculated Parson Carter, “ for you know that he 
never could be induced tQ^sign any such acknowledgment, and 
the attempt to force it would be only useless torture.” 

“It is the rule, adopted by a majority of the members,” 
rejoined the other, angrily, “and I see no reason for making 
this old land-pirate an exception, merely because he is wealthy, 
and wears fine clothes.” 

“ I second the motion for scourging,” announced Mose Min- 
ton, “ as judges, we must manifest no partiality.” 

At that instant, the beautiful Jenny Moore suddenly bowed 
upon her knees before the itinerant Hiram Baker, and clasping 
her hands as if in prayer, fixed an imploring look on his counte- 
nance. Her features were pale and unspeakably sad ; yet she 
uttered not a word, for fear of separation from the side of her 
father ; but the mournful pantomime said, in language more 
powerful than any words, had they been spoken in thunder, 
“ Save him I you alone can save him.” 

Her lovely, beseeching face, and posture of ineiBfable grief, 
touched several to tears, and the young preacher made an 
appeal of mingled argument and pathos in behalf of mercy, 
surpassing his usual eloquence ; but the cries of indignation and 
wrath, from the mob around the windows, soon drowned hiai 
voice, and obliged him to desist. 

Lawyer Rider then conceived an expedient to evade the 
question, for the present, and remarked, “ Let us postpone the 


THE RANGERS. 


263 


examination of the judge, for a while, and take up the case of 
the boy Tuttle.” 

Yes, I am in favor of that,” exclaimed Major Morrow, 
eagerly ; “ he killed my son, and I demand blood for blood, and 
I want to see the man who will deny tj;iie debt I” 

“What do you say. Jack Randolph ?” inquired ♦resident 
Parker ; “you are charged with the murder of Morton Morrow j 
are you guilty or not?” 

“ I popped him over becase he struck my daddy, when his 
hands were tied, and Pd do it again,” answered the boy, boldly. 

“ He owns the fact ; let him be condemned at once,” cried 
the major, furiously, adding a murderous menace ; “ whoever 
dares vote against it, shall have his ribs tickled with the pint of 
my bowie-knife, in a way that won^t make him feel like laugh- 
ing, I swear 1” 

The question being put by the chairman, received seven 
suffrages in the affirmative, while the others, either deterred by 
the chief lyncher’s threat, or being satisfied how utterly useless 
would be all efforts in opposition, abstained altogether from voting. 

“ I move that he be executed this very minute I” cried the 
major, with a hoarse chuckle, that sounded more like the growl 
of a wild beast, than any intonafions of a human voice. 

“And I second the proposition,” said the Millenarian ; “per- 
haps the spectacle will bring Judge Moore to his senses.” 

In vain the more merciful members urged delay until the 
morrow ; the mob around the house yelled like an army of 
wolves, for the immediate slaughter, and the resolution was 
carried by a majority of two. 


264 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHa, 


“I will hang him myself,” affirmed the arch-regulator, his 
grey eyes gleaming like those of a rattlesnake ' in the. act of 
striking, and hastily producing a cord, he fastened one end 
around the boy^s neck, and threw the other over the joist. 

Little Jack grew mortally pale, and trembled slightly, but he 
offered # petition for his young life. He only looked at his 
father, and cried, in a faint, yet tolerably firm, tone: “Good 
bye, daddy ; if they don’t hang you, tell mamma and my sisters 
good bye, too, and kiss the baby for me. I wish as how I could 
see ’em all before I go 1” 

“ Blood for blood I” shouted the merciless major, as he jerked 
the loose end of the rope, and hoisted the poor child into the 
air. 

“Brother Dave will have blood for blood I” exclaimed the 
hunter, in accents so fearfully, preternaturally hollow, as almost 
to freeze the very marrow in the bones of the horrified hearers, 
while great tears of blended sorrow and rage rolled down his 
sun-burnt cheeks ; but not a muscle quivered, not a limb shook, 
as he gazed upon the writhing awful agonies of his son. His 
nerves seemed changed to steel. 

At that moment, a tall, powerful man, with burning black 
eyes, swarthy features, and a c^ntenance of unutterable daring, 
galloped up into the yard, leaped from his horse, pierced through 
the crowd, and entered the parlor. The sentinels had attempted 
to arrest his progress, but he waved them aside, with a gesture 
of lofty disdain, and they all recoiled from his fierce looks, and 
the full qniform of an officer in the Texan army. 

The instant he stood in the presence of the astonished com* 


THE RANGCRS. 


265 


mittee, he cried, in a voice of thundering menace, “ Rebels and 
assassins, what is this I behold ? Are ye murdering a child V’ 
and snatching his sword from the scabbard, at a single blow he 
severed the cord, and released the dying boy. 

“ Who are you, that thus dare to trifle with your own life ?” 
shouted a dozen lynchers in the same breath. ^ 9 

“ I am Colonel Cook, the aid of General Houston,” answered 
the other with a grand air ; “ and who are you that seek the 
hemp of the common hangman, by your treason and black- 
hearted homicides ? Away with you, wretches and cowards 
that ye are, to the Comanches, whose craven cruelty your bloody 
crimes would disgrace !” 

Several members of the council started from their seats, in 
frightful agitation, as if to obey literally the stern mandate ; but 
Major Morrow fulminated to the ruffians around the door : 

“ Boys, let no one, friend or foe, leave this house I if anybody 
attempts to do so, send a score of rifle balls through his brain 1” 

“ That we will !” bellowed the desperadoes ; “huzza I for the 
free state of Tanaha, for ever !” 

When this savage order was given, and greeted with such a 
cordial response, the passion of the Texan officer became abso- 
lutely appalling. His dark eyes flashed jets of flame, and his 
entire visage looked lurid as a face wreathed with the wing of a 
thunder-cloud, as he exclaimed : 

“ Fools, rebels, and assassins I do you, indeed, think to defy 
the public force, as well as to violate all law, human and divine ? 
before the sun sets to-morrow, old Houston will swing you all on 
a gallows higher than that of Haman, unless you bow down in 

12 


266 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


prompt sabmission to the proclamation, which I bring you 1” 
and the colonel drew from his pocket a document bearing the 
great seal of Texas. 

“ Do not let him read it !” vociferated Major Morrow. 
“ Boys, cock and present your guns 

An onions sharp clicking was heard at all the doors and 
windows, showing that the desperadoes stood ready to fire at the 
first signal of their leader ; and the muzzles of more than fifty 
rifles covered Colonel Cook’s head and heart. He smiled at the 
danger, however, with an aspect of infinite scorn, and remarked 
in clear, calm tones : 

“ Did I not just pronounce you all cowards and murderers ? 
and now you would prove the truth of my assertion by shooting a 
man without giving him a chance. I am willing to fight half-a- 
dozen of your best bravoes ; but five hundred such dogs arO too 
many to kill at once 1” 

“ Never mind what he says, boys,” commanded the major ; 
“ wait until I give the word, and then blow him into mince- 
nieat !” 

“ Are you all alike rebels, gentlemen ?” inquired the officer, 
scowling at the different members of the committee ; “ do you 
know that the President has proclaimed martial law, and that 
every one of you caught with arms in his hands will die the 
death of a traitor, without the hope of mercy ?” 

A few of the council commenced pro^stations ; but the arch- 
lyncher interposed : 

“ By Heaven ! if one of you offer to desert our cause, Vll have 
him shot before the cowardly word gets cold on his lying lips !” 


THE RANGERS. 


26*7 


then turning towards the colonel, he said sternly ; “ Sir, surren- 
der your sword I” 

Young Bolling and the itinerant Baker, both fearing a refusal 
from the fiery Texan, and foreseeing the fatal consequences of his 
rashness, entreated : 

“For God’s sake, do not throw away your life so iihprudently ; 
you are not aware of these men’s desperation I” 

“ Never I” responded the officer, with a countenance of superb 
pride, and ineffable scorn ; “ never shall this blade of stainless 
steel, placed in my grasp by the patriot and hero, the father of 
his country, suffer the burning disgrace of going into the hand 
of a wretched rebel, doubly damned with the pollution of both 
blood and treason I” 

Take aim at his head !” cried the major, almost inarticulate 
with rage, and the next instant, Texas would have lost one of 
the brightest stars that burned on the gory field of San 
Jacinto, when quick as a thought. Colonel Cook broke his sword 
across his knee, and dashing down the fragments at Morrow’s 
feet, thundered in accents that made hundreds of the bravest 
desperadoes grow pale : 

“ There, assassins I when those two pieces of glorious steel 
coalesce again, then may your treason find pardon ; but never 
till then I” and he wheeled to leave the parlor. 

“ Halt I” roared the chief regulator ; “ stir not another step, 
or your life is not worth a copper. You are our prisoner, or a 
dead man in spite of hell and Houston I” 

“ Very well, so be it,” answered the officer, with a malicious, 


268 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AHA. 


mocking laugh ; “ but I shall live to see you all hanged, never- 
theless 

Then, by the order of the major, he was fettered' like the other 
prisoners, and the committee renewed their deliberations, the 
friends of humanity in a state of pale, shuddering agitation, but 
the ruthless and reckless in a more murderous mood than ever ; 
since they had put themselves beyond the reach of mercy, and 
had no hope now, save in desperation. 

“ I move,” said the Millenarian, “ that the accused be all con- 
demned to death, in the aggregate, without any more ado about 
it I” 

** I second the motion,” urged Major Morrow ; “ and then let 
old Sam get them back out of the grave, if he can I” 

“ And I move, that the tall feller, what broke his sword, 
be hung up with tothers,” added Mose Minton ; “ he^s 
got too much breath, and a little mite of chokin^ will do ’im 
good 1” 

“ I second the amendment,” cried the chief, with his fiendish 
chuckle ; “ he boasted that he would see us hang ; but he^ll have 
to do it with stony eyeballs I” 

“ That’s the brave talk I” yelled the mob at the door and 
windows ; “ huzza for the free state of Tanaha for ever !” 

Parsons Carter and Johnson opposed the atrocious proposi- 
tion, but the terrible threats of the ruffians, without, prevailed 
against their prudent councils, and the measure became a law. 

“ I move that they all be executed immediately,” insisted 
Dodson ; the sooner the dirty job is off our hands the better.” 


THE RANGERS. 


269 


“ So say I,” seconded the major, “ such promptitude and 
decision will terrify even old Sam himself ; and he’ll think twice 
before he shows his head in the dangerous air of Tanaha.” 

The two Methodist ministers objected, with still greater 
warmth and boldness, to this ruinous course, wiiich would 
necessarily involve them all in the guilt of murder ; but the 
deafening shouts of the mob drowned their arguments, and the 
doom of the victims appeared to be sealed, when a messenger 
rushed into the room, crying, in fearful accents, “ The Rangers 
are marching against us, and will be here before dark I” 

Most of the committee turned pale at the intelligence, and 
many a desperate heart beat like a muffled drum. 

“ How do you know. Jack Simonton ?” interrogated Major 
Morrow, without any symptoms of fright. 

“ I seed them myself, this forenoon, not twenty miles from 
Shelbyville.” 

“ But perhaps they are only after the robbers,” suggested the 
Millenarian. 

“ No,” answered Jack, trembling in every joint, “ they had 
heern of your nabbin’ Judge Moore, and old Sam wur cussin’ 
orfully. It raely made my har stick up like bristles, to listen to 
him.” 

“ Well, boys, there is nothing more to be done but stand, 
and fight it out. Let us begin by hanging these friends of the 
President I” exclaimed the chief, with his truculent chuckle. 

Lawyer Rider now interposed. “ Let us commit no such 
folly. It would be worse than cutting off our own noses. The 
wisest plan will be to keep the prisoners chained and closely 


270 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


guarded in one of the rooms up stairs. Then, if we succeed in 
defeating the Rangers, we can execute the condemned after- 
wards. But if, on the other hand, they should storm our castle, 
we will be innocent of the awful crime of murder, and we may 
easily quibble out of the charge for treason. And besides, they 
will hesitate to attack us, from the fear of shooting their own 
friends.” 

This adroit view of the case commended itself so strongly to 
the prudence of all, that it was finally adopted, and the prisoners 
being removed up stairs, the regulators prepared for an obsti- 
nate defence. 

The itinerant Baker now whispered in young Bolling’s ear, 
“ Let us all who are opposed to this horrible insurrection, man- 
age, if we can, to occupy the upper rooms, and concert some 
means for our own safety.” The youth assented, and the 
circuit-rider proceeded to urge the same advice upon all the 
members of the Methodist communion, while the other sought 
his black man Caesar, and thenceforth kept him by his side. 

The day rolled heavily away, and at the dusk of twilight, the 
Rangers appeared in full view, and halted near the gate 
through which William Bolling had passed on his first visit to 
the farm. The troop of bloodhounds and other savage dogs, 
flew towards the strangers, uttering unearthly yells ; but a vol- 
ley of bullets and buckshot soon silenced their discordant cries, 
stretching half their number at their hairy length, along the 
ground, and sending back the rest howling and limping to their 
kennels. 

Immediately, a messenger galloped into the yard, notwith- 


THE RANGERS. 


271 


standing the challenge of the sentinels, and bloody threats of the 
lynchers. He paused at the very muzzles of the guns, and cried 
in a loud voice, “ Traitors to your country, I summon you, in 
the name of the Republic of Texas, to throw down your arms, 
and surrender at discretion, otherwise you can hope for no cle- 
mency at the hands of the Executive.” 

“ Why don’t old Sam come, and read his own proclamation ?” 
asked Major Morrow, with a derisive laugh. 

General Houston has gone back to hurry up five hundred 
brave Red Landers, so that you may perceive it will be sheer 
madness for you to resist them.” 

“ Who, then, is the commander of yonder cowardly squad ?” 
inquired the chief lyncher, with a sneer. 

“ Colonel Henderson,” replied the other, with solemn dignity. 

And I warn you not to test the courage of those troops. 
They are the men of San Jacinto, and are terribly exasperated 
by the shamefulness of your conduct.” 

* “ If they be such fire-eaters, let them come on ; they will find 
us a tougher morsel to digest than the faint-hearted greasers,” 
retorted the major. 

“ Once more, and for the last time, I demand an immediate 
and unconditional surrender,” shouted the officer, “ and if you 
obey not, I now admonish all who value their lives, to escape 
from this accursed and doomed crowd of rebels, and if my 
advice be not heeded, their blood be upon their own heads.” 

“ Your blood shall redden the earth first, my fine boaster I” 
exclaimed the furious chief, as he levelled a pistol at the officer’s 
heart. 


212 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


But the latter wheeled his horse, and darted away like an 
arrow, while a shower of balls whistled around him, piercing his 
person, but not dangerously, in several places. Everybody 
expected now that the assault would commence in earnest. 
However, for some reason, it was delayed. 

In the meantime, the opposers of the insurrection had col- 
lected in small groups in the upper rooms of the building ; for 
the majority were too much absorbed in their busy preparations 
for the coming struggle, to observe the actions of the few. 

Suddenly one of the guard, set to watch the prisoners, called 
out ; 

“ Colonel Cook wants to converse with the Methodist minis- 
ter, to fit his soul for the death he must shortly die.’^ 

Baker approached, and upon being admitted, the officer drew 
him into a corner, and said in a whisper ; 

“The rangers have a piece of artillery, and some one must 
contrive to reach their camp, and tell them not to aim at the 
second story, as it is occupied by the prisoners, and theih 
friends.” 

The itinerant soon returned, and after communicating the fact 
to his associates, Parson Carter determined to bear the message, 
He descended into the yard, and passing through the lines, 
drew near the sentinels, and remarked in a low, confidential 
voice : 

“ I am dispatched on a mission to the hostile camp,” upon 
which, they allowed him to proceed. 

“No pen can describe the anxiety that pervaded the block- 
house during that sleepless night. The lynchers stood it out 


THE RANGERS. 


2t3 


with guns cocked in their hands, expecting every moment to be 
attacked. Several of them, indeed, attempted to escape under 
cover of the darkness, and were shot down by their own senti- 
nels ; for such had been the merciless order of their ferocious 
leader. 

Nor could the condition of the captives and their sympathiz- 
ers be regarded as much more favorable ; since, if the regulators 
should discover the impossibility of holding their position, it was 
highly probable, that they w’ould massacre the prisoners, before 
they endeavored to retreat ; and, although a small party would 
stand by them to the last extremity, this force was feeble com- 
pared with the number that thirsted for their blood. 

The feelings of young Bolling were of the most painfully 
excruciating character. He knew, that if the rangers should 
even succeed in carrying the block-house by storm, in the 
moment of victory, when all the inmates should be mingled 
together, it could not be hoped that the troops of the Republic 
either could, or would discriminate between the innocent and 
guilty ; and if they did not fall beneath the bowie or bullet, they 
still incurred the more loathsome risk of being hung for treason. 
Then his mind would wander to a yet sadder subject. His affi- 
anced bride was, doubtless, in the power of the brutal bandits, 
and the very thought was a dagger in his brain, a serpent’s 
tooth in his heart, a torture more unendurable than the flames 
of the martyr’s stake I 

In the meanwhile, a most touching picture was presented in the 
room of the prisoners. The boy. Jack Randolph, having been 
resuscitated, after the rope around his neck had been cut by the 

12 * 


2U 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


sword of Colonel Cook, now clung with unceasing tears to the 
hunter’s bosom, murmuring in mournful whispers of mother and 
of home, in which the tender word “ baby ” was often repeated 
by heart-breaking sobs. The countenance of Sol looked stern 
and gloomy ; but, although his hands, blistered all over by the 
torture of the morning, must have caused the most intense pain, 
he never uttered the slightest complaint, or seemed even con- 
scious of the sensation. He was thinking of something else ; and 
the dark passion of revenge on his sunburnt face appeared more 
awfully ominous than the frown of an electric cloud. 

The promised brides of the two Bartons clasped the necks of 
their lovers j for in this perilous crisis, all cold calculations of 
prudence were forgotten, and nature untrammeled had her 
course. 

The beautiful Jenny Moore was seated in one corner, on the 
lap of her father, whispering the praises of the young and hand- 
some itinerant, whose brave eloquence had so powerfully defend- 
ed the holy cause of humanity. Oh ! sweet mysterious madness 
of universal love, what immortal magic is thine, that defies all 
danger, and rules even in the house of death 1 


CHAPTER XXI. 


MARY AND LUCY 

About noon of the same day, when the events happened that 
have been detailed at such length in the foregoing chapter, the 
agitation among the bandits, at the residence of their chief, fully 
equalled, if it could not surpass that which prevailed at the 
headquarters of their mortal enemies, the Regulators. Every 
arrangement had been made for a desperate resistance against 
any assault ; whether from the mob or the militia of the 
Republic, and every one seemed determined to hold the position 
or perish in its ruins ; since an inevitable death of shame would 
follow a surrender. 

Captain Carlyle, Lieutenant Curran, Colonel Miles, and all 
the most intelligent and trustworthy members of the felonious 
party were collected in the library engaged in consultation. 
The two former presented their ordinary coolness and self-posses- 
sion, while the father of Mary seemed unusually sad and gloomy. 

At length their discussion was interrupted by the entrance 
of Dublin Jack who announced, “ Captain, thar’s a man out 
yonder, what has hailed the sentinels, and sez he’s come from old 
Houston.” 


275 


216 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


“ Did he give his name ? ’’inquired Carlyle, eagerly. 

“No, but he’s got yer pass- word, and axed whur mout be 
the moon.” 

“ Show him in,” ordered the chief hastily, and his black eyes 
sparkled with fiery animation. 

In a brief space, the stranger crossed the threshold and 
saluted the several robbers by name as if they had been old 
and familiar acquaintances. He was a stout, heavy, red-faced 
man, with common features, and sharp grey eyes, restless and 
scrutinizing in their glances, at once expressing shrewdness, 
cunning, and suspicion. He wore the uniform of the Red Land 
Rangers, with the shoulder-knot indicating his rank as a major, 
and walked with a proud martial strut, which contrasted ludic- 
rously with his squat, awkward figure, and coarse, angular 
visage. 

“How are you getting along, boys?” asked the messenger in 
a friendly tone; “I see that you stand ready for the tug of 
war ? ” ^ 

“ Let us have your own news, at once. Major Thorn,” urged 
Carlyle impatiently. 

“ It is bad enough Heaven knows,” said the other, in lament- 
able accents ; “the President is on the march, with half a thous- 
and men, and he is awfully enraged against the outlaws of 
Tanaha, as he invariably terms your people.” 

“ How near is the army ? ” 

“ In Shelby ville, by this time.” 

At this unexpected answer, the bandits uttered a simultaneous 
ejaculation of surprise, and the Captain sprung to his feet, 


MAKY AND LUCY. 


2tt 


exclaiming j “ then we shall be attacked before the middle of 
the afternoon.” 

“ There is no fear of that,” answered Major Thoro, with confi- 
dene ; “ for when General Houston heard that the lynchers 
were preparing to hang Judge Moore, he changed his immediate 
destination, and is now pushing on the whole force of Rangers 
and Red Landers to storm old Morrow’s fortress.” 

How did he chance to dispense with your valuable services ?” 
interrogated Carlyle, in tones of latent sarcasm. 

Oh, he sent me to you, with an important message,” replied 
the other, with a cunning gleam in his unquiet grey eyes. 

Then, why do you not discharge your lofty mission, dear 
Major ? ” said the bandit. 

“ That may be soon done, as it is so brief, and to the point,” 
affirmed the officer ; ” in plain terms, the President has deputed 
me to command you all, in the name and by the authority of the 
Republic of Texas, to surrender yourselves at discretion, and 
stand your trials for robbery and murder, and if you fail in 
obedience to the order, then, he swears that every one of you 
shall be exterminated without mercy, under the horrors of' 
martial law I ” 

“ By Heaven 1 he, and many of his own men shall bite the 
dust with bloody mouths, before that day shall dawn I” cried 
Carlyle, with a murderous light in his eyes ; “ we can maintain 
this position until our friends arrive from Arkansas, and then 
we shall see who will boast the loudest.” 

“ You cannot hold this house half a day against Houston and 
the Rangers I” declared the major, solemnly, “ and more than 


218 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TAN AHA. 


that, they can batter it down without so much as losing a 
man 1’^ 

“ How I what the devil do you mean V’ shouted all the rob- 
bers in fright and amazement. 

I mean, simply, that they have brought a piece of artillery 
along with them.” 

“Then we are, indeed, lost,” complained Colonel Miles, in 
despairing accents, while the others, with pallid features, stood 
as if utterly stupified, by the intelligence. 

The captain first recovered from the astounding shock, as the 
fire in his dark eyes blazed afresh, and he said, in tones of despe- 
rate determination, “Well, we still have until to-morrow, to 
throw up works for our defence, and we may triumph yet.” 

“ It would be madness to attempt such an act of folly,^^ urged 
Thornton, “ thousands of Texans would shortly surround you, 
and cut off all possibility of retreat. You must be insane, as 
old Morrow is himself, to think of defying the whole power of 
the republic I” 

“ Then what would you advise ?” demanded the chief, sharply, 
“ to give ourselves up, and die the death of dogs ?” 

“ By no means,” responded the officer, earnestly. “ I do not 
confer on my friends such indifferent counsel. You have but 
one safe course left ; escape with your slaves, and hide in the 
swamps, until the tempest shall have blown over, and the Pre- 
sident returns to the seat of government.” 

“ That is the only chance,” ejaculated Mary’s father, in tremu- 
lous accents, and with many tokens of terror. 

“Colonel, I am truly astonished to find you so faint-hearted 


MARY AND LUCY. 


2T9 


in the presence of danger,” remarked the captain, with a con- 
temptuous look. 

“ I feel no more alarm on my own account, than you do your- 
self,” retorted Miles, angrily, “ but I tremble to reflect on the 
fate of my daughter.” 

“Never mind; I’ll take special care of the lovely girl,” 
answered Carlyle, with a sneer. 

Lieutenant Curran interposed. “ Let us have no discord 
among ourselves to render the crisis more perilous. I am 
perfectly satisfied that Major Thornton’s advice is the best. In 
truth, we have no other choice remaining but to adopt it, or 
stay, and be penned up like a herd of hogs for the slaughter. 
So, I move for the freedom of the wild woods and green 
bowers of tufted cane, with birds to make us music, and the 
starry heavens for our chandelier.” 

As all the council of robbers concurred in this more rational 
view of the case, except the chief, after many earnest remon- 
strances, he finally yielded an unwilling acquiescence, and the 
plan was fixed to be carried out the ensuing night. Major 
Thornton then took his leave, with the promise to inform the 
black band, from time to time, as occasion might offer, of every- 
thing that concerned their interest, in the movements of the 
army. 

In the meanwhile, Lucy and Mary, from the window of their 
room, had noticed the approach and departure of the officer, 
and the former observed to her companion, “See, there goes 
one of Carlyle’s most unscrupulous tools, although he wears the 
uniform of a Texan officer.” 


280 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“I am truly astonished to hear you say so/^ answered the 
other. 

“ But that is not all,” continued Lucy, “ for the felons have 
managed to fill several civil posts with their creatures, and have 
members and spies scattered all over the country. Their 
scheme is one of the most stupendous ever devised by such 
outlaws.” 

“ I shudder to think of their power,” replied Mary, with sad 
emotion, “ and especially as I am now their hopeless captive, 
and even slave.” 

“We must escape, if practicable, this evening,” said Lucy, 
“ for Comanche Ben thinks that the house will be attacked by 
the Rangers in the morning, and if the robbers should be forced 
to retreat, they will be sure to carry us off with them.” 

“ Are you certain that the Indian will prove faithful to us ?” 
asked the young girl, with a look of suspicion. 

“ As much so as I am of my own existence,” affirmed Lucy, 
without hesitation. 

The two conversed but little more during the day, but wan- 
dered restlessly in the wilderness of their separate and solitary 
thoughts, which appeared wild and gloomy in the extreme, 
unblessed even by a single flower of hope, or a lonely ray of 
happiness. The melancholy mistress of Carlyle, however, had 
the advantage of possessing an object in her dark meditations 
of revenge, and she paced the floor with unquiet steps, impatient 
for the doom of her victim ; often muttering unconsciously to 
herself, or pausing with a lurid smile, as if gazing at some 
image painted in the air. For every passion of the human 


MART AND LUCY. 


281 


heart embodies itself in fancy pictures, as vivid as sunlight to 
the sharp eye of the imagination ; and the phantoms, ever pre- 
sent now to the woman’s mental sight, assumed the form of a 
grim gallows-tree, with the figure of her unfaithful lover dang- 
ling from the lofty limb. 

Mary, on the other hand, indulged a thousand changing day- 
dreams as to the destiny of her absent idol ; but continually the 
sneering visage of the outlaw mingled in all her reveries, thrust- 
ing itself between her and the promised bridal. Indeed, she 
had but too much cause to fear the cruel desperation of the 
bandit. 

The feelings of the young girl towards her companion, were 
of a strange, indefinable, and contradictory character. She 
admired her amazing beauty, pitied her marvellous misfortunes, 
and experienced the warmest gratitude for her sympathy and 
kindness ; but still the repulsion more than equalled the attrac- 
tion ; for she could not suppress her deep abhorrence, either of 
the crimes that the other had already committed, or the cruel 
vengeance which still brooded in her bosom. She could not 
even imagine how this boundless, burning hatred could find a 
habitation in the soul, once illumined with the divine light of the 
tenderest, truest love ; and as she surveyed the fierce smile on 
those fair features, and the arrowy fires of the glittering black 
eyes, she felt, as if in the presence of some supernatural, or dia- 
* bolical agent, belonging to a different order from the creatures 
of human clay, and predestined to horrible fatalities. Even the 
sound of her wild, bewitching voice seemed unearthly, and with- 
out resemblance to the tones of mortal speech ; and she could 


282 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


not forget that this had been the wife of the murdered Juan 
Gordo, and that she herself was the daughter of one of the 
assassins ; and thus by a natural law governing the association 
of ideas, she could not look upon her new friend without a pain- 
ful tremor. 

At length, the sun declined, and the dark purple shadows of . 
twilight fell over field and forest, while, here and there, the 
eternal beauty of the stars began to beam with pale fires in the 
firmament. 

“Now, let us go forth, under pretense of a brief stroll,” 
whispered Lucy, as she filled her bosom and the pockets of her 
dress, with handfuls of jewels and gold coins. 

The two women then put on their cloaks, without bonnets, 
in order to allay suspicion as to their purpose, and descending 
into the parlor, where they found no one, passed out into the 
yard. Here, they were both alike struck by the appearance of 
hurry and bustle, and the evident preparations for a general 
removal. Hundreds of horses stood bridled and saddled, bur- 
dened with heavy packs, as if for an immediate journey, while 
utensils for cooking, and various articles of light furniture, lay 
scattered about in all directions. Even the slaves had been col- 
lected in front of the door, and each ebon hand bore its bundle 
of clothing. 

“ What can it all mean ?” asked Mary, in a whisper, and 
trembling with nameless apprehension. 

“The robbers are going to retreat,” replied the other ; “let 
us glide away as fast as we can, without attracting observa* 
tion.” 


MARY AND LUCY. 


283 


At the moment, the rude tones of Dublin Jack hailed 
them : 

“ Whur ar' you guyin’, gals ? The captain ordered us not to 
allow nobody to leave these diggins, till we all go in a pile.” 

“ Where is your leader now ?” interrogated Lucy in a careless 
voice. 

“ Gone out fur a walk, I ’spose.” 

“ Well, we wish to take a little turn around the field. You 
need not be afraid of our running off without our bonnets, 
remarked Lucy with an affected laugh. 

“ Then, be in a hurry about it, for we’re all to make tracks iu 
five minutes,” said the desperado. 

The females hastened forwards, in a line diverging from the 
i main road, in the direction of the fence near the bank of the 
Tanaha. This they gained without interruption, and were about 
to cross over into the forest, when they came suddenly upon 
! Lieutenant Curran. 

“ Where now, ladies ? ” inquired the robber in surprise ; 
i ** these are dangerous times for romantic rambles by starlight.” ' 
! “We are seeking for a few sweet mouthfuls of the cool even- 

s * 

i ing air,” suggested Lucy, with her usual presence of mind. 

“ I am afraid, that you will get more than you want before 
the noon of night,” rejoined Curran ; “ I suppose that the 
captain has informed you of the intended einigration ?” 

“ No ; but we will be back in a few minutes, and then you can 
i tell us the facts,” responded the woman, as she and the young 
I girl turned towards the road. 

“ Pardon the impoliteness,” said the lieutenant interposing ; 


284 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ I fear, that the chief will be very angry if I suffer you 
to escape, for such is evidently your object.’^ 

During the previous dialogue, Mary had quivered with the 
dread of this inevitable arrest, and now, almost without the con- 
sciousness of her acts, she implored the young man : 

“ Oh I for pity’s sake do not detain us. I have never harmed 
you, and it cannot advance your interest or happiness to break 
my heart. I would rather die than be the prisoner of your cruel 
captain, who has the baseness to seek by force the hand of a girl 
that abhors him I” 

“Well, you may proceed, ladies, without molestation from 
me. It is my misfortune to be a robber, but nature will not 
permit me to be a ruffian also.” 

The maiden faltered her thanks, and again the companions 
hastened to reach the woods, rejoicing greatly at the^unexpected 
generosity of Curran. They soon crossed the fence, a short dis- 
tance from the farm-gate, and began to consider themselves safe, 
when another incident opposed their progress. 

• Suddenly sT shrill whistle pierced the silent ear of night, and 
a hoarse voice shouted ; 

“ Thar’s sumthen in the bushes, boys, see what it is.” 

“ Whar ? whar ?” inquired half-a-dozen others. 

• Thar, under the big pine-tree; close up round the place 
quick, and shoot if anybody starts to run off.” 

The two females crouched down beneath a small shrub, and 
endeavored to cover themselves with its leafy mantle of luxu- 
riant wild vines, while they could almost hear as well as feel the 
tumultuous and terrible throbbings of their own agitated hearts, 


MARY AND LUCY. 


285 


as the brush on all sides rustled and cracked louder and nearer 
to their hiding-place, till, at last, one of the men stood within 
three feet of their bodies. 


“ I don’t see nuthen at all here, whatsumever,” cried the 
robber, and turned to depart. 

Wait thar till I come and look,” ordered the first voice, and 
the moment afterwards two more approached the bush which 
served to screen the fugitives. 

“ Here it is, and a gal, too, or I’ll be switched,” exclaimed 
Roaring Dick, as with a grip of his iron fingers he dragged the 
young girl, more dead than alive, from the curtain of tangled 
vines. 

“Who are you?” inquired the outlaw, rudely, “and what 
brung you into the I)r ugh like a possum ?” 

Mary \iiis too horribly frightened to articulate a syllable, 
when Lucy sprang out with a merry ringing laugh, exclaiming, 
“ Well, Roaring Dick, confess the truth, did we not scare 
you ?” 

“Scare the devil I” ejaculated the robber; “but* I want to 
know what you’re doing out here in the woods, arter dark, 
instead of packin’ up your traps at the house, for the cane ?” 

“We were amusing ourselves with a short evening walk, 
when we heard you, and thought of this slight frolic ; but were 
you not really alarmed ?” 

Before the other could reply, the piercing tones of a bugle 
sounded from the block-house, and then came the thundering 
echoes of horses galloping over the field in all directions. Mary 
staggered with terror, for she felt that their absence had been 


286 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


discovered, and that these tokens indicated a determined pur- 
suit. But Lucy spoke in calm accents. Come, Miss Miles, 
let us now return ; our friends may be uneasy on our account. 
Good bye, Dick, and pardon the fright that we gave you.” 

“ By thunder ! you leave not this spot without my company,” 
declared the desperado. “ You had started to run away, that’s 
the fac’ ; but I’ve grabbed you, and you’ll not git loose till I put 
you in the clutches of our captain.” 

In vain the females pleaded and protested. Roaring Dick 
seized a hand of each, and hurried them onwards through the 
gate to the dwelling. Colonel Miles and the chief of the gang 
received the refugees at the door with lowering looks, and as 
soon as they reached the parlor, the storm of wrath broke forth. 

“ Lucy, what means this conduct ?” exclaimed Carlyle, nearly 
beside himself with passion. ^ 

“ Why, what have I done ?” asked the artful woman, in tones 
of blended surprise and innocence. 

“ What reason induced you two to wander out after dark, 
and even into the forest ?” 

“ Have I not always been accustomed to Such evening ram- 
bles ?” urged Lucy. 

“ But wherefore did you endeavor to conceal yourselves from 
my men ?” 

“ Simply because we could not know, in the darkness of the 
woods, whose men they were.” 

Finding that every one of his own guns was turned against 
him, and deceived by the apparent truthfulness of Lucy’s 
manner, the captain wavered, but, nevertheless, tried a last 


MARY AND LUCY. 


281 


shot. “ Why did you go out, when you must have been sure 
that I did not wish it 

“ Brother, dear, you must be crazy,” said the pretended 
sister, with a smile, “ for I never before heard an objection to 
my usual strolls.” 

“But you knew of our intention to remove from here to- 
night.” 

“ Did you tell me ?” 

“That is true; forgive this hasty suspicion,” remarked the 
chief, after a moment’s reflection, “and now get ready for a 
night journey. We must retreat from the accursed Bangers, 
and the devil only can foresee when we shall return.” 

Lucy and Mary hastened instantly to their room, when the 
mistress of the robber clasped the young girl’s hand affection- 
ately, an^ insisted : “ Do not resign yourself to despair, my 
dear friend. We will foil the villain yet, by using the proper 
coolness and cunning. He will have many opportunities of con- 
versing with you during our excursion, and I implore you, as 
you would hope to see your own true love again, do not irritate 
the outlaw by useless insult. If he presses his suit, procrasti- 
nate a decisive answer ; for every day and hour brings him 
nearer to his inevitable doom. I have more than one confidant 
among his gang, and if he tries force rather than persuasion, 
that second he shall die. Be prudent, be hopeful, and fear no 
harm. Will you follow my advice ?” 

“Yes,” murmured Mary, in a faint tone, through her tears ; 
and they dressed themselves for their disagreeable travel, and 
soon the whole party moved forwards. 


288 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


It took some time to ferry over the Sabine, and the colonel 
and captain, with the two females, crossed last. As they 
reached the top of the opposite bank, an extraordinary scene 
was presented. The entire company of three hundred desperate 
men stood huddled together, like a flock of frightened sheep, 
apparently stupified and distracted by supernatural horror. 
Their teeth chattered, their eyes rolled wildly in the darkness, 
and their very lips seemed frozen beyond the power to breathe 
so much as a whisper. 

“ Forward, march 1” exclaimed Carlyle, but not a foot stirred, 
and some of the more timid leaped from their saddles, and 
crouched upon the earth, as if to hide from some terrible vision. 

“ Fools and cowards I what is the matter ? have you lost 
your senses, or seen a ghost ?” thundered the captain, unable to 
conceive the reason of this unaccountable conduct. 

Roaring Dick drew near his leader, and pointing with a trem- 
ulous finger at something about twenty-five paces distant, by the 
side of the road, gasped an awful whisper : 

“ Look there I” 

The chief turned his eyes in the direction indicated, and sud- 
denly shook like a leaf in the hurricane, while the clear starlight 
on his features showed them livid as those of a corpse. 

Indeed, the spectacle was enough to strike the heart of the 
murderer with unimaginable amazement and horror. For there, 
on the very spot, where he had buried a pair of victims, stood 
two tall forms in the human shape, wrapped in long winding- 
sheets, white as the driven snow, motionless, silent, awful to 
behold. 


MARY AND LUCY. 


289 


“ Them ar^ Parson Cole and Bob Bennet I’’ faltered Dick, 
scarcely daring to draw his breath. 

“ And is it even so muttered Carlyle, with cold, quivering 
lips ; can the souls of the slain recross the ferry of the dark 
river to haunt their bloody graves ? Is there truly a world of 
spirits, and do the dead, indeed, never die ? Must we meet on 
the shore of shadows, the men that we have murdered on the 
earth ? It is too horrible I” 

How wildly wonderful is the emotion of mighty Fear, whether 
it builds its black house of horror ou the arches of the infant 
mind ; or weaves the wizard^s web of superstition for the pall of 
numberless nations ; or works its icy agony in the mystic depths 
of the individual heart ; or waves its pale sceptre in the silent air, 
and the world of living men cower in the dust ; or thunders in the 
rear of routed armies, as if all the devils in the hold of hell were 
in the chase ; or smites the conqueriug hero’s knees, like an earth- 
quake, in the very crisis of victory ; or fills the asylum of the 
insane ; or peoples the weird solitude of dreams, with phantoms 
of death and demons ! Everywhere, and ever, it is still the same 
mystery of a madness, as universal as man I 

At length. Lieutenant Curran, who had paused to water his 
horse, ascended the bank, and, astonished at the appearance of 
the band, cried out : 

“ Captain, why do not you move on 

The other spoke not, but pointed his shaking finger at the 
hideous apparitions. 

Curran burst into a loud laugh, exclaiming : 

13 


• 290 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS. OF THE TANAHA. 


" Well, boys, have you found a pair of ghosts at last ? I 
never heard before that such animals hunted in couples !” 

In such cases of general consternation, the sound of one fear- 
less, ringing voice, usually breaks the force of the icy spell ; and 
so it operated with the robbers. Many of them began to con- 
clude that these ghostly figures must either be optical illusions, 
or perhaps, white stumps, that they had never noticed previ- 
ously ; but a respectable minority still persisted in their horrify- 
ing faith. 

“ Them ar’ Parson Cole and Bob Bennet, lieutenant, for 
sartan affirmed Roaring Dick, recovering sufficient courage to 
use his tongue. 

Come on, boys, and let us speak to them,” said Curran, 
riding to the front, and hailing the objects. “ Who are ye, 
melancholy forms that hover above the bones of the dead ? 
answer, or, by Heaven, I’ll put a bullet through your night- 
gowns !” 

There was no response ; and the lieutenant discharged his 
pistol ; but the white robed apparitions remained immovable and 
silent as ever. 

“There is one comfort, at least, if they be ghosts, they do not 
, seem to be armed, or else they would return the fire,” laughed 
Curran ; “ and now, men, do as I command, and at the word, 
deal them a volley. Make ready— take aim— fire I” 

The roar of the entire platoon, pealed like thunder on the still 
air of night, and awakened ten thousand sleeping echoes in the 
old woods, which rung again j but when the smoke cleared away 


MARY AND LUCY. 


291 


and the figures once more became visible, a hundred voices 
uttered wild exclamations of dismay and terror. 

The apparitions still kept their position over the ashes of the 
murdered men, but they were no longer motionless. They 
swayed back and forwards, waving their long skeleton arms, as 
if to warn the robbers away from this haunted ground I 

“ Didn’t I tell you them wur no bein’s of flesh and blood I” 
gasped Roaring Dick ; “ them ar’ things that the biggest cannon 
couldn’t bring down I” 

“ I’ll soon see what stuff they are made of,” shouted Curran, 
as he sprung from his horse, and rushed upon the ghosts, while 
the others held their breath, expecting, every instant, to behold 
those shaking, shadowy arms grasp their adventurous victim, and 
fly away with him bodily. 

Suddenly the lieutenant bore down the two figures, and 
exclaimed, with boisterous laughter ; 

“ Come on, boys, I have conquered the spectres.” 

They were, indeed, nothing but shapes having the human 
outline, formed of masculine clothing, sewed together, and 
stuffed with cotton. Being suspended on slender sticks, which 
many bullets of the volley had struck, the collision had caused 
that wavering motion that had so frightened the bandits. 

“ Did you arrange this piece of folly, Curran ?” demanded the 
chief, with much severity of tone and manner. 

“ No, captain, upon my sacred honor,” replied the lieutenant 
earnestly. 

“ I ordered Comanche Ben to do it,” whispered Lucy in the 
ear of Mary. 


292 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


Indeed, Carlyle felt almost as great fear now, although of a 
different kind, as he had previously experienced, while under the 
impression that he saw weird visitants from the ghostly world. 
None of his own band could have done this, he well knew, 
from their unfeigned fright, and besides, it was dangerous to 
them all — this evident indication of a bloody secret, which they 
had buried in the earth. It must then have been some enemy, 
who had learned the mystery of a murder, for which he might 
yet be called to suffer the death-penalty of the violated law I 


CHAPTER XXII. 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 

Two distinguished phrenologists, Doctors Powel and Buchanan 
of Cincinnati, have, at different times, travelled all over the 
western frontier, and both gave the same reason for their tour 
of observation, that they could find more angular heads, more 
organs of strongly defined character here in these remote woods, 
than in countries under the restraints of civilization. 

The causes, producing this general fact, are obvious. The 
first emigrants to the wilderness, must, of necessity, possess both 
perseverance and prowess, in an eminent degree, to dare the 
difficulties and dangers which oppose the progress of the pioneer ; 
who must do battle with wild beasts and wilder men, while he 
wars with the very elements for existence itself. Feeble souls 
never venture into such a contest, or*at least, fly at the outset 
of the struggle. The circumstances surrounding the settlers, 
also tend unceasingly to the development of marked peculiarities. 
Death-defying courage is the dominant principle in society, and 
the only avenue to influence, fame, and fortune, and more than 
all, the trammels of law, custom, and public opiuion, being 


294 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


removed, the instincts, and original passions of the man, are left 
free for their unfettered and natural growth and utmost expan- 
sion, without hindrance or an attempt at concealment. Every 
person follows the primitive and hereditary bent of his own 
mind, and shows what he is, in his countenance and conduct. ‘ 

Perhaps, there could not have been found in all the forests of 
the frontier, a more strange and striking example of the truths 
just stated, that that which was afforded by the eventful history 
of the arch-lyncher. Major Morrow. More than twenty-five 
years before his culmination in Texas, he had rendered his name 
famous, or more properly notorious, throughout Missouri. 

His father was a small farmer, some miles below St Louis, 
on the Mississippi river, and sustained an excellent character 
among his rude and humble neighbors, for honest and orderly 
behavior. But from his earliest boyhood, young Jack utterly 
ignored the paths of peaceful labor, and took to the woods, as 
naturally as an Indian, with his gun and dogs ; and by the time 
he had seen his eighteenth summer, he was a mighty hunter — the 
unrivalled Nimrod of his native State. 

At this period, an incident, happened to arouse within his fiery 
bosom the most powerful passion which can sway the human 
heart, either for good or evil. An English family settled in the 
vicinity, who astonished tho ignorant populace, as well by the ele- 
gant refinement of their manners, as by their superior acquire- 
ments in knowledge. The head of the household announced him- 
self and his accomplished lady as physicians, and very soon the 
celebrity of the new doctors, Mr. and Mrs. Dewville, rung in 
everybody’s mouth. They were a proud, haughty couple, although 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


295 


poor, and notwithstanding their scrupulous politeness, their 
mutual appearance expressed gloom and melancholy, as if they 
had felt in former years, the shock of some great misfortune, and 
could not resign themselves to their fate. 

, They had an only daughter, their common idol, of such 
remarkable beauty as to bewilder and fascinate the most cynical 
and coldly careless spectator. With the airy figure of a sylph, 
the voice of a siren, the love-smile of a seraph on a faultless face, 
vivid with animation, and eyes of dark light, magical in all their 
glances, this young girl carried every heart by storm. Her all- 
conquering charms had created an immense sensation at the 
hotel, where the family had remained in St. Louis, for a few 
days after their arrival from the old country, and several of 
the lovers, who had there become infatuated on first sight, sought 
her out in her lonely forest home. 

Among these was a lawyer Ellsman, a slender, but extremely 
handsome person, of courtly manners, and considerable fortune, 
with the most flattering prospects of success in his profession. 
As soon as his attentions to the beautiful stranger became gen- 
erally known, all other competitors abandoned the field, in fear 
and despair ; for the young attorney, from his passionate 
temperament, and deadly skill with the weapons of the duellist, 
as had been manifested in half-a-dozen terrible combats, was 
dreaded by the bravest chivalry of Missouri, and no one wished 
to risk his life against a marksman, who could split his bullet on 
a knife-blade at twelve paces ! 

There was, however, a pair of solitary eyes, that watched the 
visits of the lawyer to the dwelling' of his charmer, with the 


296 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


burniug glances of a jealous rage, uiimixed with sentiments of 
fear. The residence of Doctor Dewville was a mile below that 
of the Morrows’, and the road running down the river from the 
metropolis passed by the door of the latter. 

One morning as Ellsman was returning to the city, after 
spending the night at the habitation of his idol, as he was riding 
beneath an overhanging cliff, about half way between the houses 
above mentioned, a strange figure suddenly emerged from a cav- 
ern into the narrow road before him, and barred his passage. 
The visage of the stranger writhed with such a look of unutter- 
able hatred and revenge, and his grey eyes darted such arrows 
of furious fire, and fierce determination, that even the duellist 
shuddered slightly, and felt in his pockets for the pistols, which, 
unluckily, he had forgotten to bring with him. 

“ Stand aside, if you please, and let me pursue my journey,” 
requested Ellsman, in as tranquil and courteous tones as he 
could master. 

“Not until we have a little conversation,” said the other, in a 
loud hissing whisper, more awful to hear than the loudest thun- 
der-peals of angry passion. 

“ Who are you, and what do you want with me ?” inquired 
the attorney in his blandest accents, yet tremulous with terror, 
as he began to think, that the red-haired, leather-dressed youth 
must be a maniac. 

“My name is Jack Morrow,” answered the other, in the same 
murderous, menacing under-tone ; “ and I want you never to 
visit Doctor Dewville’s again, or either speak or write to his 
daughter.” 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


297 


Why I what is that to you ?” exclaimed Ellsman in amaze- 
ment. 

“ Becaze, I love her, and mean to make her my wife,” replied 
Jack, in a terrible voice. 

“ You I” ejaculated the duellist, bursting into a sneering 
laugh at the ludicrous idea, which completely dissipated his pre- 
vious apprehensions. 

“ Yes, me I” shouted Jack, the hunter, enraged still more by 
the withering ridicule on the face of his proud rival. “ Yes, 
me 1” he repeated in tones that reverberated among the old grey 
rocks, like thunder ; “ and by Heaven I I’ll have her, in spite of 
a hundred fops sich as you I” 

“ Have you yet told her the sweet story of your tender love ?” 
asked Ellsman, with a look of burning irony. 

“No, but I’ll do so at a proper time.” 

“ I have no doubt, that she will duly appreciate the distin- 
guished honor,” remarked the lawyer ; “ and if you obtain her 
own consent, I shall certainly offer no objection.” 

“ But you must promise me to let her alone yerself,” cried 
young Morrow, “ or I’ll blow out yer heart this minute I” and 
he levelled his long rifle at the attorney’s bosom. 

The latter turned mortally pale, and reading the other’s 
deadly purpose in his countenance, signified his acquiescence, but 
without any intention to keep the involuntary pledge. 

The hunter then drew aside, and the lawyer went on, with 
feelings of shame and mortification, which may be more easily 
conceived than described. If the truth must be recorded, his 

13 * 


298 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


fickle ajBfection was already on the wane, and this rude shock 
almost crushed out the last latent spark. 

A month elapsed before his next visit, occurring early in the 
morning, and this time he came thoroughly armed. As soon as 
he had passed the residence of the Morrows, young Jack seized 
his gun, and following the same road, concealed himself in the 
cavern beneath the cliff, which had witnessed the former 
interview, and there he waited impatiently for the return of his 
rival. 

What grounds of hope could this rude, common hunter, enter- 
tain to win the hand of the most beautiful and accomplished 
woman in all Missouri ? None whatever ; nothing but the 
reckless daring, the utter desperation of passion, the savage love 
of the human tiger, resolved to tear in pieces every competitor 
that crossed his path. He had never yet breathed in the ear of 
the enchantress, so much as one burning sigh of his fierce desire, 
although she saw it all in his ardent looks, during his frequent 
calls, under the pretext of presenting choice specimens of wild 
game to the doctor. And, although it could not be expected 
that she should, in the slightest, return the tenderness of so 
coarse a creature, nevertheless, it did not give her apparent pain ; 
for when was ever the vanity of a woman offended by the silent 
sacrifice of a whole bleeding heart, as an offering upon the altar 
of her beauty, however homely might be the worshipper ? 

At length, Jack Morrow heard the sound of approaching foot- 
steps, and glancing from his hiding-place, trembled violently on 
beholding his rival and the young girl walking up the road, the 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA 


299 


former with the bridle of his horse upon his arm. They paused 
near the mouth of the cave, and continued the conversation in 
which -they had been engaged for some time. 

“I tell you, that we cannot be married for a year, at the 
least,” said the lawyer, with considerable sternness of manner, 
in reply to some entreaty, which did not reach the hunter’s ear. 

“ Oh ! my dearest, you will surely not thus violate your 
solemn vow, to which I have so rashly trusted,” urged the beau- 
tiful woman, throwing her arms wildly around his neck, and bap- 
tizing his bosom with radiant tears. 

“ Circumstances must be sometimes allowed to postpone the 
fulfillment of the most sacred promises, as in this case,” answered 
the attorney, coldly. 

“Then indeed I am lost, and utterly ruined !” cried the girl in 
tones of measureless despair. 

“ Oh no, women are not so easily ruined as that,” replied the 
other in sneering accents ; “ they can stand the loss of half a 
dozen lovers without half breaking their elastic hearts.” And 
he released himself by main strength from her embrace. 

Immediately the entire aspect of the young maiden changed, 
as if under the influence of some devilish transfiguration. Her 
dark eyes grew wildly terrible, and shot arrows of quivering 
flame. Her features turned pale as marble, and her white lips 
parted in double curves, like the coil of a serpent. She raised 
her hand as if about to smite the lawyer in the face, and asked 
in a sharp, ringing voice ; “ Sir, I now ask for the last time, 
will you wed me according to your promise, or not ? ” 

“ The bridal must be deferred,” was the chilling response. 


300 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Then it shall be deferred for evermore ! she cried in fear- 
ful accents. 

“ That will please me just as well,” he retorted scornfully ; 
adding with a brutal laugh, “ in the meantime, you may seek 
another suitor. I met one here, at this very spot, on my last 
visit — a fine fellow, dressed in buckskin, with bright crimson hair, 
who boldly avowed that you should yet be his wife I ” 

‘‘And so I will,” she exclaimed, with an appalling smile ; but 
not until his hand sends your false form to a bloody burial 1 ” 
The hunter in the adjacent cavern cocked his rifle. 

“ You will doubtless make an excellent teacher of assassina- 
tion! ” said Ellsman bitterly. 

“ No he shall hunt you up in the public streets,” she boasted, 
with a laugh of derision more fiendish than his own ; “he shall 
defy you and spit in your very mouth, and force you to meet him 
on the field of honor ; and there he will have every drop of blood 
in your lying heart! ” 

“ Good bye, Joanna dear, I wish you happiness in the arms of 
your new lover ; but if you would enjoy his beauty long, take 
care to keep him out of my way,” cried the attorney, as he 
mounted his horse, and gallopped away. 

The angry woman gazed after him with eyes gleaming red, like 
those of a female tiger, when suddenly the hunter. Jack Morrow, 
stood before her, with a storm of mingled love and wrath contend- 
ing for the mastery of his countenance, which burned in every 
lineament with flashes of electric light. 

“ I have heard it all,” he said in a horrible whisper, and 
pointed toward his hiding-place. 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


301 


Then quick as the coming of a thought, she cast herself upon 
his bosom, and pressing her pale lips to his, wept and sobbed 
convulsively, while he poured out his own fiery tears with hers, 
in gloomy silence. Neither spoke for a full quarter of an hour, 
but clasped each other^s vibrating form in the ardor of that 
burning embrace ; and thus they plighted the marriage contract, 
that had yet to be sealed with the blood of murder. No verbal 
pledge was given or required. Their hearts alone communicated 
with fierce throbbings, and thus they loved without words, like 
wild animals. 

“ Farewell, till to-morrow, my Joanna, articulated the young 
hunter, at last ; “I must now be off to St. Louis, on our com- 
mon errand.” 

“ Yes,” she answered with a strange smile ; “ and when you 
return, my hand shall be yours.” 

Jack Morrow went home ; prepared his pistols, saddled his 
horse, and hurried to St. Louis, where he arrived late in the 
afternoon. In a short time he found Ellsman’s office, but no 
one came to the door in answer to his repeated and violent 
knocking. 

A negro, in an adjoining tenement, attracted by the noise, 
thrust his head out of a window, and remarked : 

The ’torney ain’t in, mas’r.” 

** When will he be back ?” inquired the hunter, in a husky 
voice.” 

“ I dunno, mas’r ; I guess he’ll be at the big ball to-night, 
at Judge Quinn’s,” answered the African. 

“ Where does he board ?” 


302 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ At the Franklio Hotel.” 

Young Morrow hastened to the house, indicated by the black, 
and passing into the bar-room on the first floor, discovered his 
enemy drinking with a number of gay friends, at the counter, all 
laughing immoderately, while the lawyer detailed with many 
amusing embellishments, the scene, in which he had been one of 
the actors during the forenoon. 

When he had finished the funny history, according to his rela- 
tion of it, a tall, stern-featured man, with keen blue eyes, who 
had listened in silence, remarked in grave accents : 

“ Mr. Ellsman, I warn you to keep your eye well skinned for 
the red-haired hunter. I happen to be acquainted with him, 
and regard him as the most dangerous animal that runs in the 
woods.” 

‘‘ Nonsense, old Jack Smith T.,” replied the attorney, laugh- 
ing ; “ he would fly from the blaze of a pistol, like deer from the 
prairies on fire.” And tossing half a glass of brandy down his 
throat, the duellist turned and beheld the man, of whom he had 
just spoken, within two feet of his person. 

The features of young Morrow were pale as those of a statue, 
and rigid as lineaments of iron. The most fearful of all murder- 
ous tokens appeared on his visage, in great lurid tears, that 
rolled, drop by drop, down his sunburnt cheeks. The signs of 
deadly passion are all terrible enough — the scorching smile, the 
speechless grinding of the teeth, the snake-like writhing of the 
livid lips, the red radiations of the flashing eye ; but to see a 
brave man weep with unutterable rage is the most appalling of 
all — an assurance that blood must flow, as certainly as the 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


303 


thunder-clap follows the lightning of the summer storm. And 
so the lawyer understood it ; but relying on his own fatal skill 
in the arts of the duellist, he felt no sort of apprehension, and 
addressed the hunter in bantering tones ; 

“ What is your wish, Mr. Fire-eater ; do you seek my life as 
well as my sweetheart 

“ I want to shoot you, in a fair fight I” hissed the other 
through his teeth. 

“ Do you imagine, that I am going to treat such a ruffian as 
you like a gentleman V’ said Ellsman scornfully ; “ you had bet- 
ter hurry home, and wed my cast-off mistress, and I hope you 
will have much joy with the jade ?” 

Sudden as the spring of a panther, the hunter grasped the 
attorney’s nose with his left hand, and his chin with his right, 
and jerking open his jaws, discharged a full volley of tobacco- 
juice into his mouth, exclaiming, with a diabolical burst of 
laughter ; 

“ You’ll fight now, I reckon I” 

Yes I yes !” cried the other, foaming with shame and fury ; 

let us arrange the matter instantly ; yoii must die before sun- 
set I Who will be your second ?” 

“ I will,” answered old Jack Smith T., coming forward, and 
shaking Morrow’s hand warmly, with the declaration of 
approval ; “ I knew you were made of the genuine metal, and no 
mistake,” 

The hostile interview was settled to occur as soon as possible, 
and Morrow, under the advice of his friend, chose double- 


304 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


barrelled shot-guns, and the parties accompanied by hundreds 
of anxious spectators, proceeded to cross the river. 

The lord of light was just sinking in the western sky, beneath 
a bed of golden clouds, when the foes took their separate 
positions. 

“ I have the word,” said old Jack Smith T., as he placed his 
principal on the ground ; “aim low, and fire quick as a flash of 
lightning. That is everything in a duel with double barrels.” 

The seconds then assumed their proper stations, and the 
spectators held their breath in horrible suspense for 'the coming 
catastrophe. At length Smith shouted, in tones loud and clear 
as the blast of a trumpet, the usual terras of that fearful formula, 
which has sounded the signal of death for so many of earth’s 
bravest sons, and which will continue to ring over fields of blood, 
till the end of the world, unless the constitution of man shall be 
changed by some unimaginable miracle. 

At the intonation “Fire,” quick as thought, young Morrow 
raised and discharged his gun ; and with the deafening roar, Ells- 
man dropped to the dust a corpse, without even touching his trig- 
ger — so sudden was the hunter’s fire. Half-a-dozen shot had 
pierced the lawyer’s heart; for the distance had been only 
twenty paces. 

Jack Morrow hastened back home, and early next morning 
flew to the residence of Doctor Dewville, burning with indescrib- 
able eagerness to communicate his achievement. An extraordi- 
nary revolution had taken place both in his mind and appearance, 
since the hour of victory. His previous awkward and bashful 
air and gestures, had been exchanged for a lofty look of pride and 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


305 


conscious manhood. He had fought a duel, he had slain th^ all- 
dreaded desperado of Missouri, he had been congratulated for 
his prowess by hundreds of brave men, and more than all, he had 
won the hand of the most beautiful woman that ever St. Louis 
saw I These thoughts were stamped on his face, filled his soul, 
and flashed from his eyes. He felt himself the peer of any hero 
in the world. 

He rushed into the doctor’s presence, and finding the family 
at breakfast, hastily described his combat of the previous even- 
ing. Both the parents uttered exclamations of surprise and 
grief, as the lawyer was expected soon to be the husband of 
their daughter, and they gazed at her visage with the deepest 
anxiety. 

But what must have been their amazement to behold on her 
features a cruel smile of supreme satisfaction I The hunter, too, 
did not fail to observe the same token, and he concluded, most 
unwisely, that now was the fitting moment to demand the gift 
of his beautiful bride. 

“ Yes,” he continued, with a certain grand air ; “ I shot him 
for insulting Joanna ; and I now claim her hand as my just 
reward.” 

Had he thundered — “ I have come to murder all of you, and 
burn down the house over your dead bodies I” the stupefaction 
of the good couple could not have been more complete. 

“ He says but the truth, and I have promised to marry him !” 
cried the daughter, in her voice of bewildering sweetness. 

“ What I marry this ruffian I” exclaimed the male physician, 
bounding from his chair, with such haste as to overturn the 


306 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


table* “ Get out of my house, dog of a deer-killer I” and in the 
fury of his passion Jie struck the young man in the face. 

Without pausing to think, and as it were involuntarily. 
Morrow dealt the doctor a stunning blow, which hurled him 
back across the fallen table, and broke his neck, as if it had 
been a pipe-stem 1 

Instantly the awful fact became apparent. The distracted 
wife flew, with frightful screams, to raise her husband, but he 
was already lifeless as a stone, and shaking her tremulous finger 
at the horror-stricken youth, she cried : 

“ Murderer, you shall hang for this I” 

Presently, Morrow recovered from his momentary stupor, and 
said sternly : 

“ Come, Joanna, let us fly I” and seizing the hand of the 
pale, agitated girl, they rushed swiftly away from the mournful 
house of death. He lifted her unresisting form upon the saddle, 
mounted, at a leap, behind her, and they galloped off with the 
utmost speed. He halted at his father’s only long enough to 
procure a horse for his fair companion, and they then pursued 
their flight, and after the lapse of some days, arrived safely in 
the wild forests of the Osage, at the point where now stands the 
flourishing village of Warsaw. 

The first emigrants were just beginning to swarm into this 
virgin country, and as the Indians gave them great trouble, the 
reckless bravery of Jack Morrow soon achieved the highest dis- 
tinction, and acquired for him the honorable rank of major in 
the State militia. Every thing that he undertook seemed to 
prosper, and in due time he possessed wealth as well as influence. 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


307 


After a while, however, the wandering thieves and counter- 
feiters grew more annoying than the savages had been before, 
and a band of lynchers was organized, who, with singular 
unanimity, elected the major as their chieftain. And then 
commenced a series of combats and cruel executions, which 
almost surpass belief. An opposition party shortly sprung into 
existence, as always happens in such cases, under the name of 
moderators, whose ferocity, if that could be, indeed, possible, 
transcended the rage of their enemies ; and the civil war con- 
tinued until more than fifty men had fallen victims in the 
ruthless strife. While it lasted, the hostile factions endeavored 
to excel each other in barbarity, and every act of revenge was 
repaid by some deed of still more awful assassination. 

During this reign of terror, there lived in the wildest woods 
of the Osage, a hunter by the name of Mose Tuttle, the brother 
of Sol and Dave, a quiet, inoffensive man, but fearless as a lion, 
when once aroused. From the pure love of peace and order, he 
enrolled himself iu the ranks of the moderators, but never 
engaged in any of their atrocities, and soon abandoned them in 
disgust and horror. 

It happened, that one of the regulators had been shot down 
in the road, not very far from Tuttle’s residence, and they imme- 
diately accused him of a crime, which he did not even know to 
have been committed. 

At midnight, a hundred lynchers, headed by their chief, broke 
into the sleeping hunter’s house, and tearing him away from the 
arms of his shrieking wife, and the useless prayers of his little 
children, carried him off a fettered prisoner. The whole affair 


308 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA 


had been conducted in silence, and, although the captive 
entreated them to explain the nature of the offence with which 
he stood charged, not one of the ruthless regulators answered a 
word. 

They marched him on, until they reached the border of the 
prairie, where the full moon shone with a brilliancy almost 
equal to the light of day, and revealed a spectacle which chilled 
the very blood in the prisoner’s veins with an icy thrill of horror. 
There yawned that frightful chasm in the earth, which has 
nameless power to agitate the most heroic heart, that ever 
throbbed in a human bosom — a fresh grave, still empty, with 
the red clay lying in ridges around it, and which had been but 
recently dug. The pallid corpse of a man was placed beside it, 
and the blue bullet-hole in his white forehead, showed him to be 
a new victim of the unrelenting civil war. 

Here, the party halted, and Major Morrow, addressed the 
hunter in a terrible voice : 

“ Yillain, you are the murderer of that man 1” 

“ I swear, by the God that made me, and as I hope for mercy 
at his hands, that I am entirely innocent of the deed, and had 
no knowledge even of his death I” protested Tuttle with inde- 
scribable solemnity. 

“We will soon see whether you are telling the truth or not,” 
rejoined the chief, with a satanic chuckle ; “ boys throw the 
dead body into the grave.” 

The ruffians instantly obeyed the order. 

“ Now, Mr. Tuttle, you get in, and lie down beside the corpse, 
and if you are guilty, it will move, otherwise it will remain 


MAJOR MORROW AND JOANNA. 


309 


without gesture I” commanded the major, in tones of affected 
mildness. 

“ Oh 1 for pity’s sake, hang me, shoot me, kill me any way 
you will, only do not bury me alive 1” implored the hunter, as a 
dreadful apprehension of their purpose flashed across his mind. 

“We have no idea of doing any such thing,” replied the arch- 
lyncher ; “ we only intend to try an old test for the detection of 
the murderer ; and if the corpse does not stir, or the wound 
bleed afresh, when you lie in the same bed, others shall take 
your place till we discover the real assassin.” 

With horrible forebodings, Tuttle descended into the tomb 
and stretched himself out by the dead body, crying : 

“There, you see it does not move I” 

“ Be quiet till we cover you up a little, to make sure I” 
answered the chief, and a dozen hands, with spades, began to 
throw in red clay. The hunter bounded to his feet with a wild 
wail of despair ; but a brace of rifle balls shivered the bones of 
his thighs, and he fell back upon the corpse, while the pile of 
superincumbent earth rose rapidly above both the dead and 
living, and the murderers yelled like devils I 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


THE DEFEAT OP THE LYNCHERS. 

Perhaps there is nothing calculated to test the courage or 
cowardice of individuals, with so much unerring certainty, as the 
long, noiseless vigil of a night beset with immediate danger. 
Because both darkness and silence tend to inspire the emotion 
of fear, by suggesting to the mind the last sunless gloom of the 
grave, and the solemn stillness of Eternity. From this natural 
cause, in all ages and among all nations, the viewless realms of 
night have been peopled with the shadowy phantoms of supersti- 
tion. Those are the hours when fairies come forth from their 

• 

subterranean homes to dance in the charmed circle, when witches 
keep their revels around hell’s caldron of bubbling blood, when 
lost souls sign the infernal compact with the evil one, when 
ghosts glide through the haunted churchyard, when pale-eyed 
murder stalks stealthily to the sleeping pillow of its unconscious 
victim, and when all the tiger-passions, the fierce furies of the 
mind, awake to renewed life and monstrous energy. Even the 
wild animals exemplify this striking truth. The howl of the 
wolf never sounds so unutterably horrible as at the noon of dark- 
310 


THE DEFEAT OF THE LYNCHERS. 


311 


ness, and the roar of the lion becomes thunder. And thus do 
all the aspects of material nature harmonize with the different 
moods and ideas of man, and with the instincts of the wide 
living world. No human heart could hold its superstition long, 
if the sunlight lay forever on the land and sea, as all' mankind 
would soon become wild fanatics, if the grim night-shadows 
brooded eternally on field and forest. 

A marvellous change came over many of the lynchers, at 
Major Morrow’s residence, before morning, as they waited and 
watched for the attack of the Texan Rangers. The solitary 
reflection of some brought them to their senses, and exposed the 
hopeless folly of resistance to the public force, which must 
shortly become utterly overwhelming. The inherent timidity 
of others, when the fiery stimulus of extraneous circumstances 
died out, began to master their nerves, and the rifle trembled in 
a hundred strong hands, as the first silver arrows of the dewy 
dawn appeared in the grey east, and the starry sentinels of the 
night put out their golden watch-fires, and retired, one by one, 
into the azure depths of heaven. 

As it grew broad daylight, the itinerant, Hiram Baker, 
remarked in a whisper ; “ it is strange, that Colonel Henderson 
defers the assault, which should have been commenced, at least, 
half an hour ago.” 

Scarcely had he spoken, when a terrible roar, like a sudden 
peal of thunder, was heard in the direction of the farm-gate, and 
the block-house shook, as if it were standing upon an earth- 
quake, a wild outcry emanated from the rooms below, followed by 
the fierce order of the chief : “ Now, boys, aim at the men around 


312 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


the cannon ; it is a long shot, but our only chance. When 
you empty your guns, reload and discharge them as fast as pos- 
sible. Fire ! ” 

A deafening volley showed the prompt obedience of the com- 
pany, and for many minutes, the rifles roared incessantly, 
drowned, at brief intervals, by the still more awful crash of the 
Texan artillery, every thunder-ball, of which, tore through the 
slender, quivering pine logs of both walls, as if they had been 
made of paper, scattering the ragged splinters around in all 
directions, and strewing the bloody floor with dead and wounded. 

Nevertheless, the trumpet-tones of Major Morrow rose on 
high above the battle-storm of shrieks, shouts, and horrible 
curses ; above the bellowing of the cannon, and the infernal roar 
of the rifles, animating his men, by mingled menace and persua- 
sion to triumph or fall at their posts. 

During this fearful crisis of the conflict, young Bolling could 
not withdraw his eyes from the singular countenance of the arch- 
lyncher’s lady. Her appearance and conduct spell-bound him, 
as with a species of fascination. Sh? stood at a window opening 
towards the position of the rangers, and fully exposed to their 
fire, gazing, with an aspect of diabolic delight upon the appalling 
scene. Her slender form seemed to expand with the burning 
ardor of her internal emotions. Her wild black eyes blazed like 
the red flashes of the artillery. A lurid Satanic smile gleamed 
on all her features ; and the dim war-cloud of rolling smoke 
around her cruel visage, gave it an aspect truly infernal. 

And still the cannon thundered, and the rifles cracked louder 
than ever, until the external wall of the block -house, shivered 


THE DEFEAT OF THE LYNCHERS, 


313 


into large fragmentary holes, could no more afford the vain sem- 
blance of protection, and a hail of grape-shot began to mingle 
with the great round balls. 

“ Hold out, five minutes longer, boys, and if the ammunition of 
the enemy be not then exhausted, we will order a retreat,” 
shouted the major to his fainting men. 

“ Now is our time 1 ” exclaimed Bolling ; and a dozen of his 
associates, at this preconcerted signal threw themselves upon the 
guard around the door of the prisoners. 

A fierce struggle ensued, for the parties were nearly equal in 
numbers, and the regulators fought with the fury of desperation. 
In a short time, the hall was filled with smoke from the flashing 
guns and pistols, and the combat went on in the darkness. 

The huge bully. Jack Simonton, having discharged his gun, 
broke it over the head of Parson Johnson, felling him to the 
floor, as if shot through the heart, and then drawing his bowie- 
knife, the desperado rushed upon Bolling. The latter suddenly 
dropped to his knees, thus avoiding the deadly blow, and grasp- 
ing the other round the legs, jerked them from under him, and 
they rolled over together, the lyncher losing his dagger in the 
scuffle. They clinched instantly, but by an unlucky chance, the 
iron fingers of Simonton gripped the young man’s throat, and 
held it, like the jaws of .a vice. All his efforts failed to break 
that awful clasp of de.ath. He tried to call for assistance, but 
only a faint murmur gurgled in his mouth, while the waves of an 
ocean of blood seemed to roll before his darkened eye-^lls, and 
the weight of an iron mountain pressed upon his brain. He felt 
that his hours on earth had been numbered, and thought a last 

14 


314 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


prayer for his own soul, and the safety of his beautiful beloved, 
and resigned himself to his miserable fate. 

At this terrible moment, when the youth had no more power 
to put forth a struggle, he heard, through his misty sleep of 
incipient unsconsciousness, a sudden crash as of shattered bones, 
and his foe fell heavily upon his own bosom. Then, some one 
aided him to rise, and the triumphant shout of Caesar exclaimed : 

“ I fix him, Massa Bolling ; I mash him scull, like a possum’s, 
with the gun-barrel !” 

The fight still continued, but with less ardor on the part of 
the regulators, who, at last, were driven to the head of the 
stairs. Bolling and Baker then seized the opportunity to burst 
in the door, and free the prisoners. Immediately Colonel Cook 
and Sol Tuttle, snatched up a couple of rifles, which had dropped 
from hands that never would need any weapons again, save the 
spade of the grave-digger, and charged the wavering lynchers. 
The fury of the hunter baffled all description, the blows of his 
gun-barrel flew like lightning, regardless of the shots that hissed 
around his- heart, not one of which touched, while every stroke 
of his brought down a foe. 

At last, all the defenders of the upper story were forced into 
the lower part of the fortress, causing the utmost consternation. 

“Now, boys, every one, charge up the stairs, and shoot the 
whole accursed crew, women, and all ; and then we’ll retreat 1” 
vociferated Major Morrow. 

The men hurried to obey him. Yelling like savages, and fir- 
ing volleys of buckshot and pistol bullets, they swarmed up the 
steps to massacre the friends of mercy. The latter, unfortunately. 


THE DEFEAT OP THE LYNCHERS. 


315 


had already discharged their weapons, and most of them being 
without the necessary supply of balls, there seemed little hope of 
their successful resistance. However, Bolling, Tuttle, and Col- 
onel Cook stood their ground, near the top of the stairs, and 
shattered every head as soon as it appeared above the floor. 

“ Get the two ladders in the yard, there, and climb in through 
the windows I” roared the major ; and half the brave defenders 
of the prisoners were now called to oppose this new danger ; and 
they all felt the impossibility of escaping from their inevitable 
doom. 

Suddenly, a frightful exclamation of uncontrollable terror rent 
the air in the lower rooms : 

“ The rangers are coming at a charge I let us fly for our lives I” 

Instantly, the wildest panic seized the great body of the regu- 
lators ; and in spite of the threats and entreaties of their undaunted 
chief, they broke from the house, and fled in the utmost confusion. 
From motives of pity, and acting under the humane order of the 
President, the Texan troopers suffered most of the fugitives to 
escape, but they had been directed, at all hazards, to capture, 
or kill the arch-lyncher. 

When the infuriate major saw that all was lost, he ran off 
with the rest, and soon outstripped every competitor in that 
awful race, upon which so many heads depended. At length, a 
ranger, who knew Morrow personally, singled him out with his 
eye and flew after him, like an arrow, with his sword flashing in 
the morning sunlight, and uplifted to cut the fugitive down, 

Joanna, gazing on the scene from the upper window, uttered a 
shriek, as all hope for her husband departed. But suddenly, 


316 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


when the trooper came within ten steps, quick as a glance of the 
eye, the major wheeled and fired his revolver, and the pursuer 
tumbled from his saddle, shot through his right eye ; while his 
horse bounded two more leaps, and halted at the lyncher’s side. 
Instantly, the latter sprung upon his back and urged the animal 
to the highest speed. 

He obtained this needful assistance just in time ; for a 
hundred rangers were at his heels and gave chase over the 
smooth field, for half a mile towards the woods, firing their 
pistols, and shouting for him to surrender. As they drew 
near the fence, they felt sure of their victim, for a terrible thicket 
of black thorns lay immediately beyond this barrier, into which 
the very wings of a bird might hardly dare to venture. 

They’ll cotch him now 1” cried Sol Tuttle, as he paused to 
renew his breath, for h6 had followed on foot after the rangers, 
while the pale lips of Joanna, from her window, uttered another 
wild scream. 

But no, as the chief approached the fence, he gathered up the 
reins of the bridle, drew his bowie-knife, and pricking the horse 
with its point behind the saddle, thundered a fearful yell, and 
the animal took the mighty leap, and came crashing down into 
the thorny bushes outside of the field. 

Even the bravest troopers shuddered at a recklessness so far 
surpassing their own, and feared to attempt a similar feat of 
prowess. Before they could dismount and essay to follow on 
foot, the lyncher had left his saddle, and disappeared in the 
dense and dangerous undergrowth of the forest, where they 
afterwards continued their search for him in vain. 



vv .^c 

But no, as the chief approachetl the fence, he gathered up tlie reins of the bridle, 
drew his bowie-knife, and pricking the horse with its point behind the saddle, thundered 
a fearful yell, and the animal took the mighty leap, atid came crasliing down into tlie 
Uiorny busbies outside of the field. — Pack 316. 



THE DEFEAT OP THE LYNCHERS. 31T 

In the meantime, the leaders of the Texan force entered the 
block-house and beheld a horrifying scene. More than twenty 
persons dead, or wounded, lay scattered about on the floor, which 
was slippery with blood. Colonel Cook greeted the President 
warmly, and presented his new friends. Baker and Bolling, who 
were both surprised and delighted with the majestic air and 
courtly manners of the first oflScer of the Republic. 

Presently the airy form of Joanna came tripping down stairs, 
and passing, without apparent emotion, by the corpses of her two 
sons, fallen in the recent combat, she grasped the hand of her 
former acquaintance, remarking with a pale smile ; 

“ General Houston, I am very happy to see you again, 
although, I might wish that your visit had been of a more 
peaceful nature.” 

“ It is always a pleasure for me to receive a welcome from the 
lips of the beautiful under any circumstances,” replied the 
President, with his usual gallantry. 

“ Our people have been basely slandered to your ears,” said 
the woman, in her sweet silvery accents ; “or else your noble 
heart could never have treated us with such merciless 
severity.” 

“ I never discuss political questions with the fair sex,” 
rejoined the general, with a gay smile ; “ not because I deem 
such subjects above their capacity ; but, conscious of my own 
weakness, I fear to be enchanted from my duty.” 

“ Ah 1 I see, you are the same old deceiver, as great a 
flatterer as ever,^^ answered Joanna, with her bewildering smile ; 
“ but>^ must hasten, and order your breakfast.^^ 


318 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ No, I thank you, my dear madam,” refused Houston ; “we 
must march forthwith to attack the robbers.” 

“Well, at at all events, accept a cup of hot coffee ; it will 
occupy but a moment to prepare it,” insisted the lady of the 
house. 

“ Joanna, you are always irresistible,” assented the President, 
in a tender voice ; and the woman, with a strange gleam in her 
eyes, left the parlor. 

“ The she-devil I” ejaculated Houston, as soon as she disap- 
peared ; “ what other matron in the world could play the 
coquette over the corpses of her own children ?” 

Bolling, however, had noticed the sinister countenance of 
Joanna, and calling to mind their former conversation, he 
guessed at her present object, and glided stealthily after, to 
watch her actions. He saw her unlock a closet in the kitchen, 
when taking from the shelf a small vial, she poured out some 
grey powder, and mingled it with the coffee, and then calling a 
servant, she handed him the pot with the direction to boil and 
bring it into the parlor as soon as he could do so. 

Prom the murderous smile that writhed on her livid lips, the 
youth inferred the character of the intended beverage, and flying 
back to the party of officers, he whispered his suspicion in the 
ear of the President. Even Houston himself turned pale, and 
beckoning the others to him, communicated the terrible idea, 
in a low voice. 

A general exclamation of horror rose from every tongue, and 
several cried out furiously ; 

“ Let us hang the old hag — the infernal wolf-witch I” ^ 


THE DEFEAT OF THE LYNCHERS. 


319 


“Not another word, gentlemen I” said the president sternly ; 
you would certainly not disgrace yourselves by cruelty to a 
female. Leave me alone to deal with the lady.” 

The instant afterwards, she came in with a beaming smile, and 
proceeded hastily to arrange the table with teacups and saucers j 
and very soon, the slave appeared with the steaming coffee-pot. 
She quickly filled a dozen bowls with the fragrant liquid, and 
remarked in her sweetest tones : 

“ Here, general, I think, that you will find this to your taste, 
for I told Aunt Hannah to do her best.” 

“ Houston approached, and raising the cup towards his lips, 
suddenly paused, and gazing into her changeless black eyes, 
remarked, with a radiant smile : 

“ Joanna, dear, I am really afraid to drink your pleasant liba- 
tion.” 

“ Why ?” she asked, without alteration of countenance. 

“ Because,” he answered, in a voice of well-feigned tenderness ; 
“ it has a singular odor ; and with what I feel for you already, if 
you have mixed a philter in it, I should run mad with 
love I” 

“ Nonsense I how you talk I” she said, with an attempted 
smile, but the paleness of her visage perceptibly increased. 

“ I would not care,” he continued, without once removing his 
keen eyes from her countenance ; “ if you could be inspired with 
a similar degree of frenzy. Suppose, that you first imbibe the. 
same diving beverage.” 

“ I am proud to have the honor,” she responded promptly, in 
such calm accents as almost to overthrow all suspicion, and 


320 


RANGERS AND REGULAIORS OF THE TANAHA. 


lifted a full saucer to her smiling mouth with the evident inten- 
tion of swallowing the whole. 

Houston arrested her hand, and taking the vessel, observed ; 

“ Let us first try the effect on some of the inferior ani- 
mals.” 

He then whistled up a large black dog from the door, and 
setting down the saucer, the brute lapped it to the last drop. 
In half a minute afterwards, the animal uttered a mournful 
whine, and falling upon the floor in horrible contortions, almost 
instantly expired. 

“ Did I not say, that you had mixed a love-potion with your 
coffee, Joanna ?” exclaimed the President, in a voice of thunder. 

Immediately, the entire appearance of the wicked woman 
changed, when she found her murderous design unmasked. 

“ Yes,” she cried, with a burst of fiendish laughter ; “ it was 
a philter prepared especially for you, assassin of my darling 
sons ! Oh I if I only had the power, as I possess already the 
will, I would poison the whole atmospheric ocean, that lies 
around the universal globe ; I would fill the sea with blood ; or 
with the blaze of burning thunder-bolts, scorch all mankind into 
cinders, in order to behold you a corpse at my feet 1 I would 
endure any torture, die by inches, even howl in the fires of hell 
for ever, if you were only doomed to suffer by my side I” 

She foamed at the mouth, like a maniac, tore her flesh with 
her teeth, while her black eyes grew red and blood-shot. 

But all at once, the mood of her frantic imagination changed 
to tones of the wildest sorrow. She reeled giddily a few steps, 
and throwing herself down beside her youngest son, clasped the 


THE DEFEAT OP THE LYNCHERS. 


321 


dead body to her bosom, and kissing with infinite fondness the 
icy lips, exclaimed in wailing accents, the saddest ever 
heard : 

“Oh 1 my beloved boy, the most precious memory of all the 
past, my morning star of hope for the future, my sweet dream of 
the heart, the idol of all my worship, forgive thy unhappy mother 
for failing to avenge thy young blood, which the cruel one hath 
shed like water 1 ” And at last her tears came, first in drops, ‘ 
and then in quick showers, as the fall of summer rain. 

Even the spectators, in spite of their hatred and horror, felt 
moved by the mournful scene, and Bolling felt the dews of gentle 
pity flowing from his own eyes at the sight. For of all the sor- 
rows that this world of woes has ever witnessed, there is not one, 
at the same time so unspeakably profound and purely unselfish 
as the grief of a parentis heart at the loss of a dear child. Per- 
sonal interest may mingle in the painful emotions in other cases 
of bereavement, passion may burn still in the fiery tears of the 
weeping lover, separated for ever from the bosom of his beautiful 
bride, but the drop of agony in the mother’s eye on the coffin-lid 
of her babe is a molten pearl from the very centre of the soul, 
and as unpolluted as the soul itself, when emerging from the holy 
hands of its Maker. It is a gem of morning dew from the first 
flower-cup that opened in Eden — a particle of celestial rain 
brewed in the sinless air of the uppermost heaven— and wafted by 
angel wings to the earth as a specimen of immfirtal love and 
pity I 

“ Come, gentlemen, let us be travelling,” said the president in 
a saddened voice, touched by the spectacle of unutterable misery, 

14 * 


322 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


which he had involuntarily caused by the performance of his offi- 
cial duty. 

At the moment, however, a noise was heard at the door, and 
some Rangers led in a prisoner, crying as they did so ; “ here, 
General, is one of the robbers, that we found at the farm-gate.” 

“ Why I this is an Indian ! ” exclaimed Houston in surprise. 

“He speaks English, nevertheless,” remarked one of the 
captors. 

“ What is your name ?” inquired the president. 

“ Comanche Ben,” was the reply. 

“ Do you belong to the band of robbers ? ” 

“Yes,” answered the other boldly. 

“ Are they still at Carlyle’s house ? ” 

“No, they went away last evening. 

“ Where are they now ? ” 

“ That I will only tell to one person.” 

“ And who may that be ? ” asked the general sternly. 

“ A man named William Bolling,” responded the Indian. 

“ The youth sprung forward eagerly, saying, “ I am he j what 
message have you ? ” 

Ben drew from the pocket of his hunting-shirt, a small letter, 
and handed it over, according to the direction. Bolling unfolded 
the sheet hastily, and devoured the contents with pallid features, 
and wildly flashing eyes. 

“ What is the news ? ” asked Houston, observing the violent 
agitation of the young man. ' 

“ The felons are in the big swamp,” said young Bolling, with 
a deep sigh. 


THE DEFEAT OF THE LYNCHERS. 


323 


Will you permit me to glance at your note ? ” interrogated 
the president, in courteous, yet commanding tones. 

“ I cannot possibly do so,” affirmed the youth, blushing ; “ for 
in truth, it is from a lady and confidential in terms.” 

“ Then, it seems, the outlaws have beauty, as well as booty 
among them,” remarked Houston, with the shadow of a sneer. 

Bolling answered with a haughty air ; “ the lady, to whom I 
allude, is the daughter of Colonel Miles, and is a captive among 
the bandits against her will. I am ready to vouch for her truth 
and honor with my life ; nor will I allow any man, even the most 
lofty, to impugn the character of my future wife.” 

“ Pardon my idle raillery,” interposed the president kindly ; 
“ I am acquainted with the excellent girl, that you have just 
mentioned, and almost envy you the prospect of possessing such 
a brilliant and stainless jewel.” 

“Her parent, to my great regret, is one of the robbers,” 
added the youth mournfully ; “ but I cannot, on that account, 
break my plighted faith with the innocent daughter.” 

“And every true-hearted man would despise such meanness,” 
affirmed the general. 

“This person,” said the other, pointing at the Indian; “will 
guide us to the camp of the outlaws. 

“ Can you trust him ? ” asked Houston, with a look of suspi- 
cion. 

“ With undoubted assurance,” answered Bolling ; “ and I will 
accompany you, and take p^rt in your enterprise.” 

“We shall be rejoiced to have your assistance,” remarked the 
president with a gay smile ; “ and wish we all were inspired by 


324 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


the hope of as bright a recompense as yours after the toils of the 
war are over.” 

Immediate preparations being made, the rangers commenced 
their march ; and the faithful servant, Caesar, insisted on attend- 
ing his master, while Comanche Ben acted as the guide. About 
the middle of the afternoon they reached the block-house of Car- 
lyle, and as the Indian had said, found the fortress deserted. The 
president and young Bolling dismounted, and examined the place, 
and both expressed much astonishment at the costly furniture 
and magnificent library, which the captain had been forced to 
leave behind him. 

Here a debate arose, as to their farther course. According 
to the statement of the Comanche, the camp of the robbers was 
on the Texan side of the Sabine, some twenty miles lower down, 
but the path of approach on this bank was tedious and difficult, 
while, by crossing into Louisiana, they could have a good road 
nearly all the way, and would also shorten the distance by'Tialf. 

The fiery Colonel Henderson urged warmly, that they should 
take the latter direction ; but Colonel Cook objected, that it 
would look like an armed invasion of a foreign state, and might 
involve the Republic in unpleasant difficulties with the Federal 
Union. 

Houston, after maturely weighing the opposite reasons, deter- 
mined to keep on his own soil. 

Again, the little army moved on slowly ; for their dim trail 
extended through a dense forest of gigantic trees intermingled 
with tangled undergrowth, and frequently obstructed by green- 
mantled pools, and shallow miry lakes, which compelled them to 


THE DEFEAT OP THE LYNCHERS. 


325 


diverge widely from a straight line, indeed to make sometimes, 
as crooked curves as the rainbow. 

Nevertheless, in this wild swampy region, beneficent nature 
had endeavored to afford, as much as might be, the fullest com- 
pensation for her own weird work of utter desolation. Magnifi- 
cent pine trees towered everywhere, tall enough for the soaring 
masts of the mightiest admirals. Millions of lace-like vines, bear- 
ing delicate blooms of every form and fairy tint, filled the air 
with the richest perfumes. Along the borders of the stagnant 
lakes, or floating above their black surface, appeared innumerable 
wild flowers, revealing, by turns, all the sparkling hues of the iris, 
all the glories of the most gorgeous sunset, all the beauties of the 
diamond dawn. There, gold, purple, vermilion, flaming amethyst, 
violet, blue, and stainless white, all gleamed together in the 
wilderness, which human feet seldom trod, to be seen only by the 
careless eye of the unpoetic hunter, or the timid glance of the 
spotted fawn. 

“ How beautiful I exclaimed young Bolling, as he pointed out 
a radiant cluster, more lovely than ever glitered in any garden of 
the earth. 

“ There is one,’^ said General, Houston, directing the others 
attention to an unpretending and rather coarse plant just before 
them ; “ which is by far more beautiful than all the rest.” 

[ “ That lowly weed I ” cried the youth, in amazement ; “ you 

! must refer to its medicinal virtues ; for surely such a thing can 
I never yield either fragrance or flower to please the senses, in 
f comparison with the vegetable queens of the forest and prairie.” 

“ I might easily overturn your reasoning by an argument ad 


326 


RANGERS /ND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


homimm^ deduced from your own experience,” replied the presi- 
dent with a sly smile : “for often, the most unpromising parents 
show US children lovely as angels ; and the rudest exterior occa- 
sionally covers a beautiful heart. The blossom, of which, I speak 
is a true vegetable time-piece. It never unfolds its rainbow petals 
to the burning beams of day. It comes not forth, like so many 
others, at the dewy dawn, or beneath the purple shadows of the 
evening twilight. But at the precise hour of midnight, it opens 
wide its great, glorious eye to gaze on the beauty of a thousand 
stars, and to breathe its divine incense, like the prayer of an 
humble heart when all the universe sleeps, but its Almighty 
Maker ! ” 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 

While the rangers were urging their way with tedious 
difficulty, the camp of the outlaws presented a wild, almost 
romantic appearance. It was situated on a small mound-like 
elevation of dry ground, including not more than half an acre in 
extent, on the Texan bank of the Sabine, and surrounded on all 
sides by a dismal swamp, impassable 'only at one or two particu- 
lar places, known but to the robbers, who made it their 
hiding-place, at times of unusual danger. 

Here, two tents of brown canvas had been stretched, half-a- 
dozen paces apart, one for the accommodation of Carlyle and 
the officers of his band, and the other for the two females. 
Hundreds of leather-dressed, coarse-featured men, with arms in 
their hands, or by their sides, stood conversing in groups, or 
reclined lazily on the earth, while sentinels had been stationed 
in every direction, and a strong force of choice desperadoes 
guarded every possible path of approach. 

A little before sunset, the captain and his first lieutenant 

were seated by themselves in their tent, the latter apparently in 

82T 


328 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA.. 


his usual gay good humor, but the former restless and 
gloomy. 

“ You seem to be rather melancholy, this evening, cousin,” 
remarked Curran, kindly ; “ you need not entertain the least 
apprehension that old Sam will ever think of seeking for us 
here.” 

“That is little consolation,” answered the other, almost 
angrily ; “the infernal turn that things have taken will disar- 
range all our plans. The slaves have already discovered that 
we are all thieves instead of liberators, and they have com- 
menced running away from us, by the dozen. Most of our own 
band have become moody and dissatisfied, and if the devil’s luck 
continues, will very soon leave us and shift for themselves.” 

“ Then, we can fly to some new country, and under assumed 
names, begin again our lives, with the lofty resolution and 
honest purposes, which inspired our hearts of old in the golden 
dreams of the law-office,” said Curran, with a look of enthu- 
siasm. 

“We can never re-cross the dark river of crime with its 
billows of blood, that rolls eternally between our souls and the 
rainbow-winged visions, the starry hopes of our early youth,” 
replied the captain, with a profound sigh. 

“ Such memories would gradually fade away, if we were once 
environed with different circumstances, and among people, who 
knew us not, and never heard of us before,”, urged the lieu- 
tenant. 

“ A change of scene can have but little influence on the 
person, unless, indeed, he could leave his nature behind him.” 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


329 


“ But you forget the possibility of repentance, that transfor- 
mation of the heart, which the wisest and best of our race assert 
with so much confidence.” 

“Repentance ?” ejaculated Carlyle, with an accent of intense 
bitterness ; “ the very term is folly ; for how can one repent of 
actions caused by irresistible Fatality ? And reformation — the 
idea is still more absurd ; for who can alter a single faculty of 
his mind, a solitary emotion that burns in his own bosom ? Can 
you render the tiger tame as the deer-hound ? Can the air, 
earth, or water, be metamorphosed into opposite elements ?” 

“l^e wildest beasts of the woods can be domesticated by 
sufficiently long and patient labor, and every aspect of the uni 
verse presents, in succession, the most striking scenes of miracu- 
lous transformation. The same changing sky is now grey, then, 
gleaming silver, next, all burning gold,^blushing, like a young 
virgin, beneath the kisses of the morning sun, then radiant blue 
— bluer than any tint of indigo on the earth or in the sea, and 
lastly, a dome of stainless azure, sprinkled with flakes of stellar 
fire. Lo I the dew-drops of the rosy dawn, exhaled by the sum- 
mer sunbeams, in the afternoon become thunder-clouds, black as 
the mantle of midnight, which, in their turn, change into smiling 
rainbows — beautiful as the golden lightning, that plays beneath 
their air-built arches. In truth, all matter is but a magical 
Proteus of endless changes ; then, why not ■ man be renewed, 
like the world in which he has his home ? Cannot even we go 
back again to our morning, and feel upon our hearts the 
heavenly dews of innocence, as in the hours of our purple prime. 


830 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


when every leaf of grass was a young glory, and all the flowers 
seemed fresh from Eden 

The transformations, to which you have referred,” said 
Carlyle, with a sneer ; all tend to overthrow your own feeble 
fallacies ; for every one of them is but the inevitable evolution 
of natural law.” 

“ But may not the law of our natures also have endowed us 
with the powers of free volition, to aid, at least, in making or 
marring our own destinies ? The warp of the doom, doubtless, 
is spun by the iron fingers of the inexorable Fates, but we 
weave in the woof as we will.” ^ 

“Well, however, it may be,” exclaimed the chief robber, 
fiercely ; “ I for one, would not reform if I could. I shall never 
exhibit the cowardly meanness of seeking to avoid the conse- 
quences of my actions, fnd more especially, if they be, as you 
say, the result ^f my voluntary choice. I will not serve the 
devil in fair weather, and then turn towards Heaven with hypo- 
critical tears and whining prayers, the moment there comes . a 
storm.” 

At this instant, a couple of horsemen, with marks of haste 
and unfavorable news depicted on ail their features, galloped up 
to the tent, and leaped to the earth. 

“ What now. Roaring Dick ? Why have you left your 
post ?” inquired the captain, springing to his feet, with an air of 
the most painful anxiety, while the robbers, by hundreds rushed 
around to hear the message. 

“ The rangers are marching down the river,” was the answer. 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


331 


Carlyle lost color, but in order not to discourage his men, 
replied calmly : 

It matters not ; for they can never find their way into this 
swamp, and even if they did, not one of them would ever return 
to tell the tale.” 

“ But I’ve wus news nor that,” said the other messenger ; 
*‘the folks of Harrison county have all turned out, and licked 
our boys like blazes, and they’ve got all yer niggers from Soda 
Lake.” 

“ Is that, indeed, true ?” exclaimed the chief, trembling with 
agitation. 

Yes,” responded the other ; “and thar is more on it. Bill 
Barker and his fellers has run off all yer darkies from yer camp 
on Red River into Arkansas.” 

“ Oh I the villains and traitors !” shouted Carlyle in a parox- 
ysm of furious rage ; while the bandits around him, uttered a 
wild yell of dismay and grief, at the loss of their hard-earned 
booty in years of perilous war upon society. 

“ The captain well understood the effect, which such malign 
intelligence was calculated to produce, and endeavored to 
inspire the felons with hopes which his own reason repudiated. 
He urged them to hold the present position until the Texan 
troops should be withdrawn, and promised then to lead them 
into Arkansas, to avenge the treason of their false confederates, 
and recover the property, which had been carried away. 

He perceived, however, with extreme mortification, that all 
his arguments, menaces, and entreaties, had failed to restore the 


332 


BANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


confidence of the ruffians, who soon gathered in small circular 
groups on the verge of the swamp, discussing, with gloomy 
countenances and angry gestures, the ominous prospects before 
them. 

Soon the sable shadows of night descended, and a couple of 
large fires were kindled in front of the tents, which illumined, 
with crimson radiations, a circular space around them, shut in 
by walls of the blackest darkness, weird and awful to behold, 
and which now veiled the wild forms of the outlaws on the edge 
of the swamp. 

Some three or four hours after nightfall, as the leaders were 
pacing unquietly backward and forward, before the fire, Dublin 
Jack advanced with a prisoner iu the person of a huge, very 
black negro, remarking as he presented him : 

“ Captain, the guard found this ere feller, tryin’ to git into yer 
camp.” 

“ Who are you, and what do you want ?” demanded Carlyle, 
sternly. 

“ My name ar’ Caesar, and I^d like to have, my freedom.” 
replied the slave, -earnestly. 

“ To whom do you belong ?” 

“ Massa William Bolling.” 

The chief started as if bitten by a rattlesnake, and muttering 
an imprecation, gazed into the large white eyes of the African, 
with a look of suspicion. At length, he asked : 

“ What led you to expect freedom by coming to us ?” 

“ Becaze the yaller man, what them call Han, at Major 
Morrow^s, telled me so, and I wur in the big nigger meetitf 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


833 


^mong the woods, and seed that gemman thar,” said Caesar, 
pointing at Curran. 

He says nothing but the truth,” observed the latter ; “ I 
remember to have noticed him at the time.” 

In the meantime, the females in the neighboring tent, had not 
been indifferent spectators of this scene. Mary had turned 
mortally pale, the instant, when she perceived the black, and 
could hardly suppress a wild cry, at the mention of her lover’s 
name. 

“ For Heaven’s sake be calm, and do not betray your recog- 
nition, by a word or gesture I” urged her companion. 

“ Can it be possible, that so faithful a slave will betray his 
kind master ?” murmured the daughter of Colonel Miles. 

“ Never fear,” consoled Lucy ; “ he is only acting a part, as I 
see, from the cunning gleam of his eyes. 

Carlyle continued his examination, apparently satisfied with 
the testimony of the lieutenant ; 

“ Where is your master now ?” 

“ With Gineral Houston’s army.” 

And where are they ?” 

** Cornin’ down the river, as fast as ’em can.” 

Do they know the situation of our camp ?” 

“ Yes ; fur I hern ’em say, ’twur strait along the Sabine, in a 
powerful swamp ; and so I slipped off from ’em ; and that’s how 
I fotch up here.” 

“ Have they any one to guide them ?” 

** I can’t say, massa,” answered Caesar, shaking his head. 

“ There, now, that will do, my good fellow,” remarked the 


334 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


captain, thoroughly deceived by the statement of Curran, and 
the innocence of the African’s manner j “ if you be faithful to us, 
you shall be free in a few days ; go to the other tent, and get 
your supper. Lucy, give this man something to eat.” 

“ Certainly, brother,” replied the delighted woman, in antici- 
pation of some important message, as she beckoned the slave to 
her, and presented him a plate of bread and meat. 

The latter, without lifting his eyes to her face, slipped into 
her hand a soiled piece of paper, containing only these words : 

“We will attack the robbers at midnight. Trust Caesar for 
the rest. W. B.” 

Slowly the leaden-winged hours rolled away, until the noon of 
darkness. The females seemed to be asleep ; and Caesar lay 
stretched on the opposite side of the fire from their tent, filling 
the air with the sonorous music of his large, dilated nostrils. 
By the other blaze of pine-knots, sat Colonel Miles, Carlyle, and 
Curran, discussing as busily as ever, their cihiumstances and 
prospects ; while at the distance of a dozen feet, beneath an 
enormous oak, stood Roaring Dick and Dublin Jack, with 
double-barrelled shot-guns on their shoulders, their florid, sun- 
burnt visages, in the lurid illumination of the pine flame, looking 
ghastly, and almost infernal in every lineament. 

A solemn, and as it were, unearthly stillness pervaded the 
primeval forest, which was only broken, at intervals, by the ill- 
boding screech of the owl, sounding like the wail of a fiend in ; 
pain, from the leafy top of a neighboring tree, or the distant j 
howl of a wolf far away in the swamp, calling for its wandering I 


THE DEFAET OF THE ROBBERS. 


335 


mates. A scene of more utter solitude could not well be 
imagined. 

“ Suddenly the loud booming of a gun broke on the profound 
silence : 

“ There,” exclaimed the chief, bounding to his feet, with flash- 
ing eyes ; “ that was at the pass into the swamp I” 

“It can only be a shot at some wild animal,” suggested Colo- 
I nel Miles. 

* No,” answered the other ; “ I gave the strictest orders, not 
to discharge a barrel, unless as a signal, that the enemy had 
approached.” 

“ Immediately, there followed a similar report, then another, 

! and the minute afterwards, a terrible volley, which seemed to be 
1 returned by a roar equally awful. 

“Now for the combat I” shouted Carlyle, with the red light 
of battle burning on his face, as he snatched a bugle from the 
I tent-pole above his head, and blew a loud, lingering blast. 
“ That is strange I” he cried, with a furious countenance j “I 
get no answer.” 

“ The boys must be asleep,” said Curran, flying towards 
the edge of the swamp, and followed by Dick and Dublin 
Jack. 

In a moment, all three rushed back, exclaiming : 

“ They are gone, sentinels and all I” 

! Colonel Miles trembled with terror, crying in horrified 
accents : 

“We are lost I” while every second, the distant firing grew 
more appalling, and the cries of the combatants floated afar on 


336 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


the still night air, like the wail of lost souls, bidding a mournful 
farewell to life and light for ever. 

For a brief space even Carlyle seemed stupefied by the fact, 
which he had just heard, but his dark eyes renewed their fire, 
as a sudden thought darted through his brain. 

“ Yes,” he said ; “ I see it all. The wretches had started to 
desert me ; but have been met- at the pass by the rangers, and 
will, doubtless, be driven back. They will be glad enough of my 
assistance now. Not an instant must be lost ; let us fly to their 
rescue. And you. Roaring Dick, take care of the two women ; 
you must answer for their safety, with your life. Come on, all 
the rest and away they flew towards the scene of strife. 

As soon as they disappeared, Lucy advanced to the seemingly 
slumbering form of Caesar, and endeavored to arouse him ; but 
the nasal intonations continued as regularly as ever, notwith- 
standing the pinches, which she gave to his enormous ears. 

“ What ar’ y’at thar, gal ?” asked Dick, sharply, who had not 
forgotten his suspicions against the womam, conceived the even- 
ing when he arrested her in the woods of the Tanaha bottom. 

I want to waken the lazy coward, and send , him to help fight 
for his own liberty and our common safety,” replied Lucy. 

“ Never mind, I’ll quickly make him stir his black stumps,” 
said Roaring Dick, coming forwards, and striking the pretended 
sleeper with his foot. 

But in the twinkling of an eye, the African seized the robber 
round the legs, and threw him over on the earth. A frightful 
struggle followed. Tightly clinched in each other’s arms, Dick 
had no opportunity to draw his weapons, and, indeed, Lucy 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


33 1 

managed to snatch away both revolvers from his belt. The 
antagonists seemed very equally matched. If anything, the black 
man possessed the greatest muscular power, and the white, the 
most agility and skill. They swayed to and fro, rolled over and 
over, each in his turn uppermost and beneath, while the 
females gazed with pallid features on the contest, which would, 
in all probability, decide their own doom. 

At last, the bandit contrived to grasp the windpipe of his foe, 
and held it with a gripe of steel. The contest was virtually 
decided, and the victor uttered an exclamation of triumphant 
laughter, as the other lay helpless beneath him. But at the 
instant, Lucy glided up behind him, with her wild black eyes 
burning like live coals, and plunged a long, double-edged dagger 
up to the hilt, in the giant’s heart. With a low, stifled moan, 
he fell from the bosom of the African, and immediately expired. 

“ Ha !” cried Lucy, with a fearful smile on her livid features ; 
“ there lies my first victim ; but by Heaven, that shall not be 
my last I” 

' The sound of the firing at the pass into the swamp, which, for 
I a short time had slackened, now roared more awfully loud than 
; ever ; while Lucy exclaimed, “ Carlyle is among them. Listen 
i how the robbers cheer him. What if he should fall in battle, and 
cheat me yet out of my sweet revenge 1 I should die of grief 
^ and shame I 

Widely different were the feelings of the beautiful Mary, as the 
; mournful echoes floated on the air. She thought of her father 
i and of her lover, exposed to the midnight storm of that murderous 

I • 

; fiery leaden hail, and she bowed upon her knees in silent prayer. 

I 15 


338 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Spon, however, the signs of the conflict again began to die in 
the woods. The booming of the shot guns, and keener cracks 
of the rifles and revolvers, became scattering, at longer and 
longer intervals, and drew nearer to the camp. 

“Ha I the robbers are beaten — they are retreating — the luck 
of the devil has failed him at last. His dream of golden fortune 
has turned to a vision of burning blood ! He shall hang high on 
the gallows-tree, and hear my howling curses I” cried the bandit’s 
mistress in a wild delirium of joy. 

“We had better be hidin’ outer thnr way, before they git 
back,” remarked Caesar, as the sounds of the tumult rapidly 
approached ; and the three hurried off into the darkness, and hid 
themselves in a thicket of bushes on the bank of the Sabine, 
from which, however, they could both see and hear everything 
that transpired near the teats. 

In a couple of minutes afterwards. Colonel Miles, Carlyle, and 
Curran rushed towards the fire, their clothing torn and blood- 
stained and their visages livid as death. 

“ Oh ! Mary,” cried the father. “Lucy ! Lucy ! where are 
you ? ” shouted the captain, in a terrible voice, as he glanced 
into the vacant tent, and gnashed his teeth furiously. “ Roaring 
Dick ! ” he yelled louder ; “ hell and the fates I has he deserted 
me too ?” 

“ There he is I” answered the lieutenant, pointing at the corpse 
of the bandit. 

“ The she-fiend ! ” thundered Carlyle ; “ that is her work ; but 
I’ll roast her alive for it yet I ” 

As he spoke, half a dozen more fugitives emerged from the 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


339 


darkness, followed by the rattle of a sharp volley, and the victori- 
ous shout of the rangers, who charged, at a swift run, towards 
the camp-fire. 

The river is our only chance I ” exclaimed Carlyle, and they 
all fled in the direction which he indicated, passing within six 
feet of the bushes which concealed the females. Not one of 
them paused an instant, but leaped over the steep bank with 
sullen plunges into the swift current. 

“ Great Heaven! has he indeed escaped?” almost screamed 
Lucy, as she wrung her hands in despair. ‘'Oh I merciful God, 
preserve my poor father ! ” prayed Mary in an agony of grief. 

The next moment, the Texan rangers swarmed to the spot, 
discharging their guns at the surface of the dark-rolling river, 
wherever an object appeared on its surface ; and several wild 
yells of pain and terror, told that some of the shots had taken 
effect. 

“ Come on, boys,” cried the savage voice of Comanche Ben ; 
“and I’ll find a boat half a mile lower down. The Captain 
would not let the rest of his men know where it was, for fear 
they would run away.” 

Immediately, Colonel Henderson, young Bolling, and about 
fifty others, started with the Indian to seek a passage across the 
stream. Their path was extremely difficult, and their horses 
nearly mired down at every step, while their course meandered 
through so many mazes, that no one, except the most experienced 
guide, could have toiled successfully among its numerous crooked 
windings. 

At last they gained firm ground, and the Comanche, point- 


340 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


ing to a tangled mass of green cane, remarked ; “ there is what 
will carry us over,” and dismounting, he parted the jungle with 
his hands, and unmasked a boat of some size. 

Instantly, they dragged the vessel down the bank, and upon 
its being launched, eight persons got in, and rowed across the 
stream, holding their halters while the horses came swimming 
behind them. 

“ Now,” said the Indian, as they landed safely on the Louis- 
iana shore ; “ one of you go back for more help, and let the 
others follow me ; the woods are open for three miles up the 
river, where there is a swamp, and if we hurry, we can overtake 
them before they reach that.” 

They leaped into their saddles, and the Comanche with 
Colonel Henderson, and Bolling leading the way, the party 
galloped forwards. The forest, consisting of tall pine trees, 
being free from undergrowth, they were enabled to ride with the 
greatest speed, and flew quickly over half a league, when they 
discovered a couple of dark forms some hundred paces before 
them in the starlight. 

“ Yonder they are 1 ” exclaimed the Indian, and in a moment 
they arrived at the spot, bat the fugitives seemed to have disap- 
peared. 

‘‘They have sheltered themselves in a hollow tree,” said the 
guide, and the rangers sprung to the earth, and commenced an 
eager search in all directions. 

As young Bolling passed by a large log in the vicinity, he per- 
cieved that the end was hollow, and stooping down to look in, a 
pair of demoniac black eyes, gleaming like fire-balls, met his 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


341 


gaze. He uttered a loud exclamation, which drew the remainder 
of the company to the point, and seizing the robber by the hair, 
dragged him from his hiding-place. 

Carlyle attempted a desperate resistance, but having been 
forced to throw away bis heavy revolvers in swimming the Sabine, 
his efforts proved ineffectual, and he was soon overpowered 
and fastened with cords cut from the halters of the horses. 

“ Where is your companion demanded Colonel Henderson, 
aiming a pistol at the outlaw’s bosom. “ Where is he 
repeated the fiery officer, “tell me, or I’ll blow out your 
heart I” 

“ Like a cowardly dog, as you are I” said the robber, with 
a scornful chuckle. 

“Do not shoot ! here I am,” cried the voice of Curran from 
the fallen tree ; and he came out and delivered himself up. 

The party with their prisoners then moved again down the 
river, searching for Colonel Miles and the remaining rogues, but 
in vain. They could find no traces of the others, and concluded 
with strong reasons, that they must all have been either shot, 
or drowned in the rushing stream. If the truth must be told, 
young Bolling hoped most sincerely, that such might turn out to 
be the case. 

In the meantime a somewhat singular scene was being enacted 
at the camp of the outlaws. Immediately after the departure 
of the party in pursuit of Carlyle and his comrade, Caesar with 
the two females emerged from their concealment, and advanced 
to the fire, where they saw General Houston. 

The president, with his usual polished and dignified courtesy, 


342 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


extending a hand to each, greeted them in his rich winning 
tones : “ Ladies, believe me, I value this as the proudest vic- 
tory with which fortune has ever been pleased to favor me ; 
since by it 1 am enabled to free youth and beauty, from their 
gloomy imprisonment among murderers and outlaws.” 

“ Oh I General, cried Mary, weeping as if her heart would 
break ; “ show mercy to my poor father I” 

“ I will do all that I can consistently with the claims of 
public justice,” replied the president, evading the petition ; “ but 
he may not need any clemency ; for the colonel is not yet cap- 
tured, and very probably, will not be. But has not the other 
lady here, also some request to offer ? ” 

“ Oh yes, your excellency,” said Lucy in anxious tones, while 
her dark eyes blazed with strange flashes of fire ; “ I pray you 
to have Captain Carlyle tried by a regular court of law, for the 
crime of willful murder, and then let him be executed by the com- 
mon hangman, like a cold-blooded, cruel assassin, as he is I ” 

“ But, my dear Miss, where shall we obtain the evidence to 
substantiate the fact, which you allege ? ” inquired Houston. 

“I will furnish the fullest proofs,” she asserted, with a look 
of absolute assurance ; “ I am myself a witness, and Comanche 
Ben will show you the graves, where he buried his victims.” 

“ Who were they ? ” 

“ A Parson Cole and Bob Bennet.” 

“Would you not be as well pleased, if he should die under 
martial law ? ” asked the president, wondering much at the 
revengeful, though enchanting visage of the woman, whom he 
suspected to be the robber’s mistress. 


THE DEFEAT OF THE ROBBERS. 


343 


“ By no means,” she answered j “ for the latter method of tak- 
ing leave of life is not so unalterably disgraceful as the former ; 
and besides, I will also have time to learn from his own lips, the 
hiding-places where he has buried his treasures, as well as the 
haunts where his confederates keep their stolen slaves.” 

“ Yery well, it shall be as you wish,” assented the General, 
“ for it is the best course.” 

“ Then, your Excellency,” said Lucy with a sweet, bewitching 
smile ; “let the Indian’s testimony alone be takeu before the 
committing magistrate, and suffer not my agency to appear in 
the matter until the hour of trial.” 

“ I give you my promise, to that effect,” affirmed Houston ; 
“ but the Captain must have injured you most deeply to account 
for your feelings of hatred ! ” 

“ Oh! he has ruined me utterly and forever I ” she whispered 
in accents of indescribable bitterness ; while her entire frame 
shook with the intensity of her passion, and burning tears of 
rage stood in her dark eyes. 

After the lapse of some hour and a half, a loud exclamation 
was heard, at the distance of a hundred yards below on the 
bank of the Sabine ; “we have caught the villains ! here they 
are ! ” 

Lucy requested the president ; “ your Excellency, let me 
and my companion retire, and draw down the front sheet of the 
tent. I do not wish Carlyle to know where I am to-night j ” and 
the two females disappeared beneath the canvas. 

The general immediately ordered Colonel Henderson to go on 


344 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AHA. 


with the two prisoners, and lodge them, under a strong guard, 
in the jail at Shelbyville. 

Young Bolling, who had joined so ardently in the pursuit, in 
order to save Mary’s father, now rushed forward, with eager 
inquiring eyes, to which the president responded, by raising the 
convas in front of the tent, and the lover and his maiden met 
once more. 

It would be a species of profanation to paint their emotions, 
or repeat their words — holy as the love of their young hearts 1 


CHAPTER XXY. 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 

When tne arch-lyncher, Major Morrow, effected his escape, by 
urging his horse to the frightful leap over the tall fence into the 
jungle of black thorns, as soon as he could crawl away a suffi- 
cient distance for safe concealment, his first care was to examine 
the extent of his injuries. Fortunately for him, the animal had 
broken down the brush of the thicket, as it fell to the earth, and 
being dressed completely in leather, he, therefore, received no 
wounds of any severity except some ugly scratches about the 
face. 

But the deepest, the most enduring scar of all had been made, 
beyond the reach of human sight in the bleeding depths of his 
proud and passionate heart. He had lost all, his fame, his fair 
character, his influence, the prestige of a success, that hitherto 
had never deserted him for a moment. His wealth gone, his 
sons slain before his eyes, and the everlasting terrors of the law, 
suspended above his head, nothing now remained but the miser- 
able life of a fugitive from justice. 

15 * 846 


346 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


There are moments in the existence of every, even the most 
unpoetic individual, when all the events in the long history of 
the consciousness, which has past, are suddenly, and as it were, 
simultaneously revealed, as by a flash of internal lightning, that 
searches out the darkest secrets in all the caverns of the soul, 
and reproduces each faded fact of memory, until the entire life lies 
before us, not in severed fragments, but as a homogeneous whole 
— a present picture, with all its lines of light and shadow, misty, 
mournful, yet vivid as the images of those strange dreams, which 
defiant of the laws of time and space, crush ages of joy or grief 
into an instant. 

Such minutes of miraculous retrospection come at nojparticular 
season, nor in any given mood of the mind ; but apparently free 
from the ordinary fetters of association, and beyond the control of 
psychological causes, as if breathed into our hearts by inspiration, 
or the supernatural whispers of the angel or demon, that rules our 
earthly destiny, they visit us at all hours alike — at the gay 
bridal, beside the gloomy grave, in the merry avenue of the 
bright metropolis, and beneath the solemn shadows of the old wild 
woods, when the sun burns in the zenith at noonday, and when 
the darkened night shows all her stars. The sound of a voice, 
the sight of a summer cloud, the warble of a bird, one tone of 
the evening wind, the pattering of rain on the house-top, the low 
moans of the pine forest, the climax of pleasure, the crisis of 
mortal peril, everything and anything, or nothing, can touch 
this electric chain of our being, and bring back again all the dead 
that once lived in our hearts, all the perished pictures of fact 
and feeling from the darkest dells of moonlight memory. 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TOTTLE. 


347 


Such an emotion, and the first that his coarse, cruel, hardened 
nature had ever experienced, mastered, for a short time, the 
mind of the regulator, as the full extent of his misfortune burst 
upon his view. All his ruthless deeds, all his many murders, 
every heart which his fierce hand had broken, every bitter tear 
that it had wrung from other eyes, recurred, at once to his 
recollection, andj;hrilled his soul with horror. 

He rolled upon the ground in agony. He tore up the young 
grass with furious teeth. He dashed his head against the 
sharp thorns, foaming at the mouth like a mad dog. Suddenly 
he sprung upon his feet, and gazing with an awful smile upon 
his pistol— that darling weapon, which had shed blood enough 
to cool its iron, had it been red-hot from the fires of a forge, he 
exclaimed, in a loud demoniac whisper : 

“No, I will not fly, like a coward, from my home. I will not 
leave the dead bodies of my children to be buried by my enemies. 
They shall not hunt me as a wolf, from bush to bush through all 
the wild woods I I will return, and die at my own door ! but 
several of them shall bear me company in the quick journey to 
everlasting hell I let me see how many — one, two, three, yes, I 
have half-a-dozen loads still left ; and I will take with me six 
souls as presents for the devil I” 

As he spoke, the cries of the rangers, searching the thicket, 
came nearer, and he crouched down again in the jungle, like a 
hunted tiger. 

“ No,” he said to himself, in the same hissing, inhuman whis^ 
per ; “ I will not now throw away my life by an act of folly. I 
will keep it for a richer feast of revenge. I will become a wild 


348 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


man of the woods. I will wait, watch, waylay, and shoot them 
one by one, till the last foe licks the dust. I will combine with 
the robbers, the Comanches, and the devil — do and endure 
everything, to avenge the blood of my sons, and my own unspeak- 
able disgrace, I’^ 

He crept away on his hands and knees through the green 
bushes, pausing when he heard the approach of his pursuers, who 
often came within five paces of where he lay, and creeping on 
again as they receded. In this dangerous and tedious manner, 
he finally gained the former council-ground, where the commit- 
tee had first opened their rebellious proceedings, and their captives 
had been put to the torture. Here, perceiving no one within 
sight, he rushed into the large hollow of the sycamore, and 
ascended to the same internal knotty-projection, where Carlyle 
had once seated himself to witness the organization of the regu- 
lators. 

Here he listened to the clamorous cries of the Texan 
troopers, as they wandered through the forest, calling to each 
other, and hunting everywhere for their human prey. At 
length, he saw a strong party advancing directly towards his 
place of refuge, and gave up all for lost. As they halted 
beneath the tree, one of them pointed at the hideous corpse of 
Bob Taylor, which still dangled from the same limb, exclaiming, 
“There, boys, is a robber, that old Morrow hung yesterday.” 

“ I wish that he had served all of the black band in the same 
way, and then committed suicide himself,” answered another, 
laughing, and the group went on. 

As they gained the edge of the thicket, however, the lyncher 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 349 

heard the commauder of the group give the order, “ Bill, you 
stay at this point for Tialf an hour, and watch if any of the 
rascals pass.” 

The attention of the major was now occupied with two 
objects, equally horrible to his eye and imagination, and he 
gazed alternately at the form of the ranger, some thirty yards 
distant, and then at the corpse of his victim, but a few feet from 
the small hole in the hollow wood, through which he was 
enabled to observe both. At last the Texan departed, and left 
the fugitive alone with the dead. His emotions grew terrible 
in their wild unutterable horror. The staring stony eye -balls 
of the corpse were turned towards him, as if with conscious 
upbraidings of his cruelty. The bloated blackened features 
seemed to scowl upon him still with infernal rage, and the fallen 
jaw disclosed the great white teeth in a ghostly hellish grin, 
that said plainly, as if the sentence had been uttered in words, 
“ Lo I I am avenged 1” 

Presently, a flock of ravens, which had been scared away by 
the troopers, with savage croaks, like the cries of dark-coated 
devils as they were, came back to finish their fearful feast. The 
murderer beheld their fierce bills, contending for the eyes, the 
lips, and all the dainty morsels of the human carcass, fighting, 
shouting, screaming, as it were, with yells of diabolical laugh- 
ter. 

“ Oh I” he moaned, in mental anguish, “ shall such a doom 
ever be mine ?” 

Croak ! croak ! caw — huzza I” answered the ill-omened 
birds of Fate, screaming more wildly, revelling more infernally 


350 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


over their horrid meal, and calling all the crows and vultures 
to their orgies. 

The conscience-stricken man could endure the vision no 
longer, but gave an involuntary cry, which frightened off the 
unclean fowls, yelling their maledictions as they flew. 

The major, however, trembled with apprehension, as he saw 
that his silly exclamation had attracted towards his asylum a 
human figure, coming at a swift run. The face was so much 
deformed by bleeding wounds, that the very mother of such a 
son would have failed to recognize her own child ; and, indeed, 
the old lyncher had little time for observation, as the instant 
after the first glimpse, the other rushed , into the hollow syca- 
more, and began to climb upwards. 

Morrow instantly cocked his pistol, and pointed the muzzle 
down at the ascending head of his supposed foe ; but the 
second before he would have fired, a voice below inquired, 
“ Major, are you there V’ 

“Yes, Mose Miller, is that you said the chief, rejoiced to 
find the bravest desparado of his band. 

“What is left of me,” answered the other. “Move up 
higher, and let me have your seat.” 

“ Morrow, with much difficulty, clambered to a greater eleva- 
tion, and obtained a somewhat similar footing, but far more 
unpleasant, and where the hole in the hollow wood was still 
smaller than the one beneath. 

“ Keep a sharp lookout there. Miller, to notice if anybody 
appears,” ordered the chief. 

“ I can hardly see for the blood in my eyes,” responded Mose. 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 


351 


“ Are you badly hurt V’ 

Not dangerously, I think, but the cut is on my forehead, 
and the claret runs rather freely,” said the other. 

A few minutes afterwards, footsteps resounded on the other 
side of 'the tree, and soon came to the opening, where they 
paused. Then a voice called out — “Run here, Mr. Moore. 
Tharps some sorter game up this holler, or my name’s not 
Tuttle.” 

“ Great God I I am lost 1” thought the lyncher ; “ that is 
Sol.” 

“ How do you know, Dave !” asked a more youthful and 
polished tone, eagerly, 

“ Becaze thar’s warm blood droppin’ down here, and that’s a 
sartin sign, I reckon.” 

Then I will owe my death to Mose,” thought the major, “ I 
wish that I had shot him I” 

“You are right, Dave Tuttle,” remarked young Moore. 
“ Doubtless, a wounded regulator has concealed himself in this 
hollow, and I hope it may prove to be old Morrow.” 

“ And I guess I does too,” aflSrmed his companion ; “ but you 
must let me kill him.” 

“No, I must have that honor,” urged Alfred Moore, “he 
caused the death of my poor brother, and his son did the cruel 
deed !”. 

“ But did he not bury my brother alive In Missouri ?” said 
Tuttle, sharply ; “and I’ll cut his breath, or have a fight for 
it.” 

“ Well, I suppose it matters not much by whose hand he dies, 


352 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


and so I will yield my right to your antecedent claim/’ assented 
Moore. 

Dave then moved stealthily in a circle at the distance of ten 
paces around the sycamore, scanning its trunk with keen glances, 
when he suddenly paused, exclaiming, “ There’s two pair of eye- 
balls, I’ll be sworn I” and he raised his pistol and fired at the 
lower hole. 

But the lyncher, having marked the gesture, withdrew his 
head, and the bullet missed its aim. Tuttle rushed to the foot 
of the trunk, and discharged his revolver in rapid succession, 
three times up the hollow. 

The roar in that confined air was deafening as a thunder clap, 
and the shuddering fugitives felt themselves almost stunned by 
the shock, as well as stifled by the smoke of the powder ; but 
protected by the knots beneath, they nevertheless escaped with- 
out any wounds. 

“We can’t git ’em that ar way,” whispered Tuttle in the ear 
of his comrade ; “ let us fust stop ’em up, and then we can study 
what to do.” And the two immediately dragged several large 
limbs, that lay around, and soon filled up the entrance com- 
pletely. 

From the noise of their efforts, and the increased darkness 
within, Mose Miller conjectured the frightful purpose of his foes, 
and cried in accents awful as the howl of a wild beast : “ Oh ! 

Major, they are barring up the hole at the foot of the tree 1 
My God I we are gone I” 

“ Let us descend and prevent it,” yelled the chief ; get down 
quickly as you can.” 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 


353 


“ Then they will shoot me 1’^ ejaculated Mose ; “ for I lost my 
revolver in the flight.’^ 

“ Damn you I go down this instant, or I’ll shoot you I” shouted 
Morrow, striking the other’s head with his heel. 

In a moment both were laboring to remove the obstruction to 
their egress ; but all such attempts seemed unavailing ; for their 
enemies without continued to pile logs as heavy as they could lift 
against the entrance, and filled every crevice with pine knots. 

The agony of the prisoners became intense. Mose in partic- 
ular was boisterous in his mingled prayers and curses. One 
instant calling on Heaven, with appalling imprecations, and the 
next, imploring his pitiless jailors for mercy. At last he 
managed to open a crack sufficient to thrust forth his arm ; but 
he immediately jerked it back with an indescribable howl of pain, 
his hand being mashed to a jelly of blood and shattered bones. 

The Major seized the opportunity to discharge his revolver 
through the crevice, and deceived by the pretended groans of 
Tuttle, unluckily for himself, fired off every barrel. “ There 1” 
he exclaimed, in tones of ferocious triumph ; “ I think that one 
of the villains, at least, has got a dose of blue pills in him that 
he wont digest in a hurry 1” 

Dave Tuttle answered with peals of mocking laughter : “ All 
right on this side of the tree ; how is it in thar, old coon ? 
Each good turn, they say, desarves another, and as you buried 
one of my daddy’s sons alive in Missouri, now I’m even with you, 
I reckon I” 

“ Let me out, and fight me like a man I” said Morrow, in 
doleful accents. 


354 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Did ye fight my brother like a man ?” exclaimed Dave, in 
awful tones ; “ did ye gin him even the chance of a dog ? No, 
old devil, you’d better say yer prayers, fur ye’ll never see day- 
light agin I” 

Alfred Moore then suggested : “ Let us set the heap on fire, 
and roast them, as they sought to serve your brother, Sol I” 
That’s a rich idea !” replied Dave ; “ we’ll do it — burn ’em 
up like snakes I” 

They hurried, and brought some live coals that remained 
among the ashes from the fire of the previous day, and kindled 
a bright blaze. 

•‘Oh I for pity’s sake, do not burn us to death I” entreated 
Mose Miller, in accents inconceivably mournful. 

“ Cowards I fiends I give us a chance like men 1” shouted the 
major, in a voice terrible as the roar of a lion. 

But the response came in bursts of merciless laughter, while 
the funeral flame increased every moment. Even the destroying 
element seemed to rejoice over its human prey. It licked every 
crevice in the pyre with its long, laughing-tongues, red as the 
hues of living blood. It sung, crackled, roared, fairly shouted, 
as if with infernal glee, and drowned the cries of the doomed 
men. 

The last articulate sound heard was the wild, wailing prayer 
of Mose Miller : “ Mercy ! mercy I I did not kill your 
brother I” 

The countenance of Dave Tuttle changed instantly as if by 
magic. His features grew mortally pale, and trembling in every 
limb, he exclaimed in hollow tones : “ Cuss me if I can do it !’ 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE, 


355 


and commenced scattering the brands in the utmost haste. The 
combustible fuel of pine-knots being removed, the flame ceased, 
and the larger logs, not yet having become ignited, nothing 
was left but the smoke and some embers beneath the heap, or 
live cools that could not be taken away with the naked hand. 

“ What do you mean, Dave asked young Moore, in the 
wildest astonishment. 

“ Cuss me, if I can do it I” responded Tuttle solemnly ; “ it’s 
wusser nor the Comanches and cowardly Mexicans. I never yit 
did kill a man without giving him a fair show, and I wish I may 
turn to a wolf, if I ever do 1 and, although the old wretch did 
bury my poor brother alive, that’s no reason for me to make 
myself as bad as him.” 

At the moment, the look of Dave had a certain air of sub- 
limity. His figure towered up to its full height. His bosom 
expanded with the consciousness of nobility in act and feeling, 
and his sunburnt swarthy face was illumined by a rich radiance 
of generous and indescribable bravery. 

“ Then what do you intend to do ?” inquired the other. 

“ Open the hog-hole fur ’em to crawl out,” answered the rough 
hero, “ and fight ’em like a true Texan.” 

“ But they will probably shoot you down the instant when 
they get a sight of your person,” suggested Alfred Moore. 

“ I’ll fix ’em fur that,” affirmed Dave Tuttle with a sly 
wink. 

He then made a small opening, and inquired, “ ar y’all alive 
and kickin’ in thar ?” 

“ Yes,” replied the half-stifled voice of Mose Miller ; “ bu^ 


356 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


we are almost suffocated with the smoke. For the love of God 
let us out I” 

“ I will, if ye’ll promise to fight us a fair jewel on the spot,” 
said Dave. 

“We do — we do,” answered both prisoners in the same 
breath. 

“ Then poke us out yer weapons, so you can’t unexpected git 
any advantage,” ordered the other, imperatively. 

Hardly able to credit his senses at such magnanimity, the 
major handed over his revolver through the crevice in the wall 
of the besiegers. 

“ Is that all ?” interrogated Dave. 

“'Yes ; I swear it is,” responded Miller, “ for I lost my 
pistol in the flight.” 

Tuttle then pulled away the logs, one by one, while his friend 
stood with his revolver cocked, ready to fire, if he should 
observe the slightest token of danger from the liberated cap- 
tives. 

Such instances of heroic generosity are not unfrequent among 
the most reckless desperadoes of the backwoods. Men whose 
right arms have been crimsoned with human blood to the very 
elbow, shed on the miscalled field of honor, and in sudden 
encounters, where the chances are equally balanced, neverthe- 
less, disdain to attack an unprepared foe, or to deal one stroke 
which cannot be returned. And yet these persons, without 
discrimination, as an entire class, have been stigmatized as 
ruffians by writers who scruple not to perpetrate more deadly 
stabs with their steel pens, than were ever given by the point 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 


35T 


of the poisoned dagger, or the keenest blade of the bowie 
knife ! For what are all material tortures in Comparison with 
the crucifying pangs of the mind, murdered in its dearest memo- 
ries, its fondest loves, its brightest hopes ? How many of the 
rich, in the gay capitals of commerce show mercy to the break- 
ing hearts of the poor, ground into the dust by their cunning 
monopolies ! Aye, the most clear-headed and calm philosopher, 
the most warm-souled philanthropist, the greatest eulogist on 
urban civilization, to be candid, must confess that there are 
other competitions more fearful than battles with revolvers, and 
the willful homicide of happiness and reputation is the worst 
species of possible assassination I 

As soon as Miller and Morrow emerged from their smoky 
prison, Dave saw that they were indeed disarmed, and remarked 
quietly, “ well, gentlemen, 1 will now load the revolvers, and let 
you take yer choice.” 

“ But I can’t fight,” urged Mose. 

Why not ?” inquired Tuttle with a look of surprise ; “ yojji 
seemed willin’ enough, when you tuk me and brother Sol.” 

Miller held up his horribly mutilated hand, with tears of 
grief. 

“ That ar’ a fact, poor feller,” said Dave, in tones of pity, 
“ and as long as you havn’t killed any body, we’ll let you oflF.” 

He next proceeded to prepare the weapons, and then held 
them up, saying : “ now, old sinner, which do y’ choose the 
right hand or the left ?” 

“ I will select the one in your left hand,” replied his antago- 
nist. 


358 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Then I’ll measure off thirty steps, and lay the tool down, 
and you can gd arter it when I come back, and fire when y’ 
like,” observed Tuttle. “ That’s fair, ain’t it ?” 

“ Certainly,” responded the regulator, with a countenance of 
malicious pleasure. 

The other counted off the requisite number of paces, and 
having deposited the revolver, walked calmly again to the syca- 
more. 

The major, with a murderous smile on his freckled visage, 
started hastily towards his position ; but Dave interposed, 
‘‘ wait a bit, old feller, I want a leetle chat with y’, as it’s the 
fust, it will most sartinly be the last.” 

“ Talk away, but be in a hurry, if you please,” said Morrow, 
angrily. 

“ 0, y’ needn’t git in a huflf, becaze y’ can’t start quick as a 
streak of lightnin’, though it’s a long road yu’ve got to travel,” 
remarked Dave, in a dry tone. 

“ I had rather fight than stand here, all day, gabbling non- 
sense,” retorted the great lyncher, savagely. 

“ Would’ nt y’ rather choke babies to death in Missouri than 
do either ?” asked Tuttle, with an awful look. 

“ What do you mean, rascal ?” gasped the other, turning 
white as a sheet. 

“ I mean, that you murdered your wife’s fust child, becaze 
’twur not youru, but Lawyer Ellsman’s, of St. Louis ; and my 
brother what y’ buried alive seed you do it with his own eyes, 
in a little holler near the Osage, and then y’ cast the dead crit* 
ter into the river I” 











• \ 

^ ikd 











A 



Tuttle’s ol)ject, by this terrible banter, was to agitate the lyncher so much as to 
disturb the deadly accuracy of his aim ; but in this he was, at least, unsuccessful ; for 
when Morrow, after snatcliing up the revolver, turned round, although his visage 
retained its previous death-like pallor, his limbs appeared firm and steady as iron, 
while he levelled his pistol at the bosom of his antagonist. — I’agk 359. 




MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 


359 


“ It is false I” cried the major, in hoarse accents, quivering in 
every nerve ; “ let us decide, however, all differences betwixt us, 
by the pistol.” 

Go ahead, old baby-killer I” said Dave ; “ but mind y’ don’t 
see a ghost before the sights of yer weepun !” 

Tuttle’s object, by this terrible banter, was to agitate the 
lyncher so much as to disturb the deadly accuracy of bis aim ; 
but in this he was, at least, unsuccessful ; for when Morrow, 
after snatching up the revolver, turned round, although his vis- 
age retained its previous death-like pallor, his limbs appeared 
firm and steady as iron, while he levelled his pistol at the bosom 
of his antagonist. 

Indeed, it was impossible to determine, as they stood with 
their weapons presented, a moment before firing, which was the 
firmest, or most fearless. The countenances of both seemed 
truly diabolical in their fixed frenzy of unutterable hate ; but 
that of Dave wore an awful smile, while the features of the other 
revealed a Satanic grin, lurid and appalling. 

Suddenly, both pistols roared together, and Tuttle reeled at 
the shock, as if about to fall, clapping his left hand to his right 
breast apparently in an agony of pain ; and young Moore 
thought that the combat had ended fatally for his friend. 

“ Ha ! exclaimed the regulator, with a wild laugh of mockery, 
and rushed with the fury of a savage towards his tottering enemy. 

But when he came within a dozen paces, Dave suddenly ral- 
lied, raised his revolver, quick as a thought, and senf a bullet 
through the centre of Morrow’s forehead, the latter falling to 
the earth, like lead. 


360 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


Are yon hurt inquired Alfred Moore, in a voice of the 
deepest anxiety. 

“ No, I ^nt even scratched,” replied Tuttle, laughing ; “ I 
only played possum, to fool the old feller ; but I come very near 
cotching it ; fur I heerd the ball whistle mighty close to my jaw. 
I’ll swar.” 

“ Mose Miller immediately advanced towards Dave, and holding 
out his left hand, with tears in his eyes, said in grateful tones : 

Let me thank you for sparing my life, although it may 
hereafter be that of a cripple ; and forgive my conduct at your 
brother’s house, I was urged to it by the persuasion of others, 
some of them, too, ministers of the gospel, who caused me to 
believe that Sol was a commmon thief.” 

“ I pardon y’ freely,” answered Tuttle, with the moisture of 
tender pity on his own brown cheeks ; “ and now I’m sorry fur 
maskin’ yer hand ; but go home with me, and we’ll see if it can’t 
be cured.” He theu added, “ we must let Morrow’s people know 
what has happen’, so they may put away the body in the 
ground ; becaze, though I hated him orfully, while livin’, I don’t 
want to war with the dead !” And the three started for the 
block-house. 

It will be remefnbered, that Alfred Moore and Dave Tuttle 
both escaped from the regulators on the same night. As soon 
as the lynchers left his father’s residence, the former returned, 
and having procured his rifle, a double-barrelled shot-gun, and a 
couple of revolvers, he followed on after the lawless party, for the 
purpose of revenge. Wandering in the woods around the major’s 
residence, he met, by accident with Dave, who being a former 


MAJOR MORROW AND DAVE TUTTLE. 


361 


acquaintance, they agreed to prosecute their common object 
together, and the success of their united pursuit, we have just 
witnessed. 

In a short time after they had left the corpse of the major, 
they arrived at his dwelling, but subsequently to the departure 
of the rangers, and Sol too had already started for his prairie 
home. They paused in the yard, and Dave Tuttle remarked in 
a mournful voice : 

“ Mr. Moore, you go in, and tell ’em what has happened ; 
becaze, fur my very life, I can’t.” 

When the latter entered the parlor, he trembled with pale terror 
at the scene which met his glanee. The weeping mother still lay 
on the blood-polluted floor, alternately kissing the icy lips of her 
two inanimate sons, and uttering low moans of immeasurable 
despair and grief, while her daughters stood near, weeping almost 
as wildly for their brothers. 

The young man hesitated to communicate the additional 
tidings of crushing woe, but as all other persons, even the slaves 
had gone, he had no alternative. 

“ Where is he ?” screamed Joanna, bounding to her feet, as 
if she had been hurled up by the recoil of a broken spring in her 
heart. 

“Near the large sycamore, by the lake at the council-ground,” 
answered Moore. 

“ I must go to him I” she cried, in accents sad and solemn, 
beyond all imagination, and rushing from the door, with maniac 
lustre in her dark eyes, she flew across the field 1 


16 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE JAIL. 

Since the first settlement of North America, there had never 
been an organization of thieves and robbers, at once so powerful 
and so extensive, as that which existed on the western frontier at 
the date of the foregoing events. They had a regular cordon of 
private posts, running along the line of civilized life, from the 
prairies of Iowa to the thorny chapparal of the Rio Grande, 
while travelling agents, as missionaries of murder and robbery, 
kept up a perpetual communication between the different sections 
of this vast dominion of coalesced and felonious crime ; and 
district meetings, as well as general councils, assembling annually, 
bound together the diabolical brotherhood in a close and com- 
pact union, enabling them to evade, and sometimes to defy, all 
the laws of civil society. They had their secret pass-words and 
mystic signs, and their confidants in almost every neighborhood, 
and thus, for the most part, they managed to escape punish- 
ment. 

Two dissimilar causes contributed to produce this deplorable 

state of things. In the first place, the population was scattered 

, 862 


THE JAIL. 


363 


in settlements, with wide intervals of solitary desert betwixt 
them, abounding in wild game, and exactly fitted for the hiding- 
places of rogues and refugees. There were no jails, except inse- 
cure log-cabins, and as the courts held their sessions but once or 
twice in the year, prisoners always contrived to escape either 
before the day of trial or that of execution, if indeed they did 
not procure an acquittal through false testimony or some cunning 
quibble of the law. It was of course impossible to hire a guard, 
when the only means of payment must be in county scrip, at the 
current value of ten cents on the hundred. 

But a second and still stronger reason favored the robbers. 
The half-civilized tribes of Indians, from the east of the Missis- 
sippi, had been lately removed to the frontiers of Missouri and 
Arkansas, and the felon, when in danger, had only to cross the 
line, and find a safe and permanent asylum among these secret 
enemies of the white race. 

As there seemed to be no legal or moderate remedy for such 
annoying and innumerable wrongs, the people everywhere, and 
almost simultaneously arose from their lethargy, and organizing 
themselves into companies of lynchers, took the law into their 
own hands. And hence, terrible scenes ensued, about the same 
time in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and in the evils of 
anarchy rivalled, or perhaps surpassed, the outrages which they 
had been intended to redress. Every ruthless passion was let 
loose upon society. The revolver displaced both judge and 
sheriff, and the bowie knife dethroned Blackstone. However, 
during the conflict, the prestige and power of the rogues, re- 
ceived a death-blow, and never again assumed a menacing position. 


864 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


The day after their capture, Carlyle and his friend Curran, 
with Dublin Jack, were seated on the floor in the jail at Shelby- 
ville, indulging in those gloomy reflections, and terrible fore- 
bodings, which their situation could not fail to inspire. They 
could no longer entertain the least hope, even to preserve life 
itself, except by a verdict of acquittal at the hands of a jury. 
Escape from their prison seemed utterly impossible ; for heavy 
chains had been fastened to their wrists as well as ancles, and a 
strong force of rangers had been detailed to stand guard around 
the log-cabin where they were confined. 

The appearance of each captive, in the meantime had under- 
gone a remarkable, almost magical, change. The countenance 
of the Captain was rigid, stern, terrible, unrelenting, as the 
fabulous iron destiny, in which he so firmly believed as the only 
controlling force in the universe. His thin lips were immovable 
as a mouth of marble, and his dark eyes flashed their defiance on 
the very walls of his dungeon. The amazing power of his will 
in such circumstances of immeasurable despair realized the sub- 
lime of physical desperation. 

The lieutenant, on the contrary, looked indescribably sad and 
solemn. His lips quivered nervously, and from his blue eyes 
rolled occasionally large silver tears, in single drops, like the 
first of a thunder shower ; while his handsome features had lost 
every tinge of their usual rosy color. But yet his visage did 
not betray any token of craven fear. The emotion revealed 
there, seemed rather unutterable sorrow for the past — perchance 
repentance. 

The coarse, brutal face of the giant, Dublin Jack, presented a 


THE JAIL. 


365 


totally different indication of natural feeling. He scowled con- 
tinually, like a demon, at the fetters on his hands and feet, and 
rattled their iron links incessantly, by the restlessness of his 
motions. Now and then, he yelled horrible curses and bitter 
blasphemies, such as a lost spirit might be imagined to utter on 
its arrival in the prison-house of purgatorial tortures. He 
resembled a tiger lately caught, and could scarcely credit his 
own senses to find himself within the bars and bolts of the 
gloomy cage. 

At length Curran spoke in a kind, but very mournful voice. 
“ Dear cousin, this is indeed a fearful fate, compared with the 
glorious hopes and morning visions that glittered from afar on 
the horizon of our innocent youth. 

“ Well, I care not,” replied the other, in severe but tranquil 
tones. “We have enjoyed our summer of sunshine, and must 
now confront, without shrinking, the fury of the winter’s storm. 
Everything in nature has its day of doom, how tfien can man 
expect to be alone free from the common lot ? The fairest 
flowers must fade. The tallest pine-tree withers before the 
thunderbolt, as the mountain-top on which it towers crumbles 
to atoms at the shock of the earthquake. The very stars die 
out in the sky ; and, perhaps, at last, as the old myths seem to 
indicate,' all the rolling worlds will return to the primitive chaos, 
whence they so vainly emerged. All things, empires, cities, 
philosophies, religions, races, perish at the pre-appointed hour ; 
for what force or cunning can fight with eternal fatality ? what 
menaces or idle prayers can move the viewless monster from his 


366 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


remorseless purpose, pitiless as these metallic links on my 
fettered hands ?” 

“ I did not allude to the pangs of death,” said his companion, 
with pallid lips, “ but to the disgrace of such a final exit from 
the light of life, as we must make.” 

“ Disgrace I” exclaimed Carlyle, with a contemptuous sneer ; 
what is it ? To merely have your name — an empty sound — dis- 
cussed by the breath of fools. When the final agony is over, it 
matters not what men say, for you shall never more hear it I” 

“ But the soul — the immortal intelligence, that thinks in the 
scheming brain, acts in the working hand, feels in the fiery 
heart, may it not still bear, through other spheres of being, the 
bitter memory of its deeds done in the faded flesh ?” 

“ I tell you that there can be nothing in the universe but life, 
death, and destiny,” retorted the captain, in the sternest 
accents ; “for where all is fatality, there can be no room for 
the reign of a God 1” 

“ O I idle dreamer of futile fallacies,” answered Curran, 
mournfully, “ can you not perceive that your argument is a ter- 
rible non sequitur, and that your own premises warrant an 
opposite conclusion ? Because, for ought you can know, or 
even imagine, to the contrary, the very fate which you affirm, 
may have enthroned a Deity, and predestined a future state of 
rewards and punishment. Before you can be qualified to pro- 
nounce a negative on the subject of such mighty mysteries, you 
must possess facts gathered from the experience of more worlds 
than one — you must pierce the starry deep of endless space, and 


THE JAIL. 


367 


scale the blazing battlements of the highest heaven, before you 
will be competent to assert the non-existence of a spirit-land I’’ 

“ Aye, it may be so,” muttered the skeptic, with an awful 
frown ; then raising his angry eyes and chained hands towards 
the roof of his prison, he thundered, in appalling tones, “never- 
theless, eternal destiny, hear me I Thy slave, though crushed 
to the earth — fated — fallen — hopeless — defies thee here, here- 
after, and for evermore I” 

At the moment, the door opened, and the brown, withered 
visage of attorney Rider entered, with a profusion of obsequious 
bows and friendly smiles; 

“ What do you want here, old gabbler ?” exclaimed the cap- 
tain, in accents of violent indignation. 

“ Your examination before the magistrate will commence in a 
short time,” said the lawyer, pecking the air with his beak-like 
nose, as if to find a fee,, “and I thought, perhaps, you would 
wish to confer with your counsel.” 

“ With my counsel I” echoed the robber, in amazement, 
“ who is my counsel ?” 

“ Who else should it be but myself, your humble servant, the 
only attorney in the place?” answered Rider, in a pompous 
manner. 

“ Ah ! you seek a retainer, you think that in such a desperate 
case the victim will bleed freely,” sneered Carlyle, mimicking the 
other’s air, and ludicrous obeisance. 

“ You do me much injustice,” responded Rider, as if wounded 
grievously by the captain’s words, “ I have already received my 
fee, and a most liberal one it was too ; I must say that.” 


368 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Who the devil employed you V’ asked Carlyle, in utter 
astonishment. 

“ Your beautiful and accomplished sister,” replied the lawyer, 
with a sly wink, “ and any man may well be proud of such a 
loving and devoted relative.” 

“ My sister !” repeated the bandit, almost stupified by the 
information. 

“Yes, your sister Lucy,” said the other, very surprised at his 
agitation ; • ‘ did you imagine that she was dead ?” 

“No, but I thought that she had betrayed me,” murmured 
Carlyle, in saddened tones, almost doubting the evidence of his 
own ears. 

“ What madness induced you to believe such a falsehood ?” 
inquired the attorney, warmly. “ I have seen many spectacles 
of sorrow in such cases, during my long practice in the defence 
of criminals, but I never witnessed before such grief as hers. 
She paid me a thousand dollars down for my services, and pro- 
mised as much more if I succeed in attaining your acquittal, as 
I shall certainly do.” 

“Eternal destiny! how I have wronged her I” cried the 
robber, trembling with marvellous emotion, and before the new 
gleam of hope, which revealed a chance for escape from his 
doom. He had steeled his heart against fear, and gathered firm- 
ness from the very blackest reflections of his own despair. He 
steadied his soul to dare and endure the worst, and he could 
have undergone the keenest pangs, the most infernal tortures 
ever invented, without a groan or tear of anguish ; but this 
sudden smile, this bright glimpse of a more propitious fortune. 


THE JAIL. 


369 


unnerved him quite, and he stooped his forehead upon his 
chained hands, and wept like a child. 

At last, he recovered his composure, and asked in a mournful 
tone ; “why does not Lucy come and see me V’ 

“Oh,” answered Rider promptly, “the doctor will not per- 
mit her to leave the sick room ; she screamed and carried on so 
when she found that you were taken, as to rupture a blood- 
vessel and nearly endanger her life.” 

“ Dearest Lucy, what an atonement I will offer you, for my 
past injuries, if I shall ever again have the opportunity !” sighed 
the bandit, at the moment all his old affection rushing back in a 
tender stream to his heart. 

“ And now,” said the lawyer, “ since we understand each 
other, let me proceed to advise you. Be sure that you deny 
every accusation which they may bring against you.” 

“ But what are the particular charges ?” interrogated Carlyle. 

“ The murder of a Parson Cole and Bob Bennet.” 

“ Who arc the witnesses ?” gasped the assassin, awfully pale. 

“ They have only one — Comanche Ben.” 

“ Ha I he is the traitor I ” cried the Captain with a stony 
stare ; “ then indeed, I am lost I ” * 

“ Not at all, my good sir,” said the attorney ; “ for your sister 
will swear to your innocence, and- prove the Comanche himself 
to be guilty of the deed.” 

“ Oh ! Lucy, what a treasure you are in the hour of adver- 
sity I I never knew your worth until now I” exclaimed the 
bandit, in accents of passionate earnestness. 

Those who afiBrm, that the light of love, when once faded can 


3t0 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


never be relumed, have never passed through the deepest mys- 
teries of that wild emotion, as lawless as the lightning, as way- 
ward as the wind of winter — that type of fickleness and change. 
Often when the heart that formerly burned with the heat of a 
furnace, has grown cold and careless to the divine voice whose 
lightest tone could once fill it with a frenzy of joy, and to the 
beautiful lips, one touch of which made the very blood boil in all 
the veins; and even after long years of absence, some unexpected, 
and perchance trivial event — a few lines of an old letter— a lock 
of hair — the sight , of a picture — the recovery of a forgotten 
ring — the presence of danger — the approach of death — or it may 
be, the vivid, life-like imagery of a dream — will revive the faded 
fondness, in all the fiery ardor of its glowing prime. And after 
the resurrection of such a love, though dead and buried in the 
bosom, its might and magic are even greater than in the most 
powerful spell of its first existence. 

The investigation before the magistrate, was held the same 
day after the lawyer’s visit to the prisoners. Comanche Ben 
appeared as the only witness, and testified positively that Captain 
Carlyle had murdered the two persons, as charged, and that 
Dublin jTack, with a number of others, had assisted to bury them. 

Attorney Rider urged a most determined opposition against 
the committal of his client, and furiously assailed both the com- 
petency and credibility of the Indian. But as the corpses of the 
victims had been found, in confirmation of the Comanche’s story, 
and the excitement of public opinion was entirely unfavorable to 
the accused, they seemed to have little chance with so ignorant 
and prejudiced a court. 


THE JAIL. 


371 


The chief robber listened with a calm, disdainful air to the 
evidence, and at its termination, before the final decision of the 
» magistrate, he interposed, “May it please your honor, is there 
any proof to implicate Mr. Curran in the affair ?’’ 

“Not as yet,” replied the justice. “Witness, did the lieutenant 
here, aid in either the homicide or the burial of the body ?” 

“ Not as I know of,” answered the Indian. 

“ Then I must discharge him,” remarked the court, in accents 
which showed such a duty to be quite painful. 

“I object to that,” said Curran rising; “unless you also 
liberate Mr. Carlyle ; for if he be guilty, so am I too.” 

“Do you then, confess the crime?” inquired the magistrate 
eagerly. 

“ No sir,” responded Curran, with a look of extreme severity ; 
“ I will repeat my declaration, that if the captain be guilty so 
am I ; and if you send him again to jail, I wish my name to be 
included in the same mittimus^ 

“Well, I will be happy to accommodate you,” said the court, 
with a malicious smile, and seizing his pen, he wrote the order 
remanding all the three to prison. 

As soon as they went back to the dungeon, Carlyle asked 
with almost angry surprise; “In the name of common sense, 
Curran, what folly caused you to make such a qualified acknow- 
ledgment, and furnish that spiteful magistrate a pretext for put- 
ting you once more in chains?” 

“ Dear cousin,” replied the lieutenant sadly : “ did you have 
such a faint idea of my friendship as to imagine that I would 
leave you alone to face death, if it must come to that bitter end ?” 


3t2 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“Yes, but you are innocent of the charge,” suggested the 
Captain. 

“ Then I will not be the first innocent man, that ever suffered • 
unjustly,” answered the other, 

“ Oh I what a blunder, you have perpetrated,” exclaimed the 
chief, frowning ; “if you had gone free, it would have enabled 
me to escape also.” 

“ How ?” asked Curran, in surprise. 

“ You might have become a witness in my favor.” 

“ Cousin,” responded the lieutenant, in accents of extraordi- 
nary firmness and solemnity ; “ you have a thousand unques- 
tionable proofs of my devotion to your welfare, and of the fatal 
fascination, which your power has held over me. I will even 
contrive to hang by your side if you shall be executed ; I would 
die to save your life at any hour. But there is one thing that I 
will never perform for you again — I will never more do a volun- 
tary wrong ; and I would not swear a falsehood, to rescue a 
hundred such necks as yours and mine from the halter I” 

“ Why I you have all at once grown wonderfully virtuous,” 
retorted the captain sarcastically. 

“ I deem it time for the reformation of ns both,”'said Curran, 
in tones of unutterable sadness ; “ now that we hover on the 
breaking brink of the dark river, whose swift waves will waft ' 
us to some far off shore, we know not whither, or to what an 
awful doom I” 

“But^the lawyer affirms that we will be cleared without 
difficulty,” urged Carlyle, in agitated accents, shocked in spite of 
himself by the other’s melancholy voice and manner. 


THE JAIL. 


3Y3 


“ I am certain we stand on the verge of eternity,” answered 
the lieutenant, with death-like features. “ My angel mother 
came to me last night in the pale starlight, before the battle, and 
warned me of my approaching fate. It was her second visit 
since she has been an inhabitant of the heavens ; and the first 
was the evening before our flight from New Orleans I” 

“ Optical illusions I” muttered the sceptical robber, with an 
unquiet countenance. 

“ It seemed evident to my senses as any form of either sun- 
shine or shadow,” said the other with a sigh. 

“ I cannot believe it,” returned the chief, shuddering in all his 
muscles ; “ it would be too dreadful for me to die now, when I 
know what agony it would inflict on the heart of her who loves 
me, with such unfading fondness.” 

And thus by the inevitable operation of an ordinary psycho- 
logical law, with the bandit’s old affection had revived his 
desire for life, and his horror at the idea of that most lonely 
solitude, that deepest darkness — the sunless night of the grave. 
Previously he had been unwavering as an iron mountain, that 
thunder itself might not shake. But now the wind of a 
zephyr could move him like the lightest leaf of the woods. 
Before, he was prompt to perish, he cared not how or when ; 
now, he would have gladly bartered the wealth of worlds for one 
brief month of mortal being. He had stood firm as a giant in 
the wild sands of despair, with the stormy billows up to bis 
neck ; in the green field of flowery hope, he was weaker than an 
infant. 

Every day Attorney Rider came to the jail with tender mes- 


3U 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AH A. 


sages from Lucy, and assurances of a final acquittal. At length 
he announced that she had so far recovered, as to be able to 
pay a visit of her own on the subsequent morning. It may 
well be imagined that in the present excited state of his feelings, 
the robber did not close his eyes during that night. Through- 
out all the darkness, the guard of rangers could hear the inces- 
sant clanking of bis chains, and his muttered apostrophes to the 
woman that he now loved with a wilder passion than ever. 

A little after sunrise she made her entrance, apparently quite 
pale and feeble ; and immediately threw herself upon Carlyle’s 
neck, weeping and sobbing, as if her heart would break with 
a mingled tempest of grief and fondness. Had her own frantic 
affection indeed regained the mastery of the woman’s mind? 
Let us wait and witness. 

“ Oh ever dearest, and now only dear, forgive me 1” cried 
the bandit, mixing his tears with hers. 

“ There* is truly nothing to forgive,” she murmured in 
whispered music ; “ my heart, my love, my life — all are yours I 
but speak not of that ; I have come to tell you gloridus 
news.” 

“ What is it ?” he gasped, as if fainting from anxiety. 

“ I have bribed the sheriff, and here *is a list of .your jury,” 
she said, handing him a small roll of paper. 

He snatched it hastily from her fingers, and devoured the 
names with a smile of triumphant joy. “ Good I” he exclaimed, 

they cannot hang me, at least the first trial ; for half these 
men are my friends.” 

“ The officer could do no better,” she replied ; “ because all 


THE JAIL. 


375 


the rest of your band has fled, and these are not even suspected ; 
but it cost me all my jewels to pay for so much favor.” 

“ Never mind, Lucy, you shall be rich as a queen yet,” consoled 
the captain with beaming looks. 

“ I could buy up the remainder of the panel, if I only had 
the means ; I have felt them on the subject,” she remarked in a 
mournful voice. 

“ What do you say ?” asked Carlyle, wildly ratling his chain, 
as if he doubted the evidence of his own senses. 

She repeated the assurance. “ Oh 1” he whispered, “ if that 
be all which is necessary, I can tell you where to find wealth 
suflScient to ransom a royal head I” And he gave her directions 
how to discover his hidden treasures, the spoils of a hundred 
robberies and murders. 

“ The jurors only require a thousand dollars to each,” she 
affirmed.” 

“ Well, be sure that you do not give them more than half, 
until after the trial,” he urged by way of caution. 

“•Trust me, they shall not have a chance to betray us,” she 
answered confidently. 

“ And now,” he insisted, hurry away, and finish the good 
work which you have so auspiciously commenced.” 

They then separated with many ardent tears, and mutual 
protestations of eternally fond fidelity. A brief space, after 
Lucy had gone. Attorney Rider was admitted. 

“And so she told you the fine tidings,” said the lawyer, 
chuckling ; I see it in your eyes. Well, she can beat me all 


3t6 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


hollow at the game of bribery, though some envious pettifog- 
gers accuse me of being a cunning hand myself.” 

“ Counsellor, I want you to draw up a legal instrument for 
me,” observed Carlyle, eagerly. 

“ What is it I” asked Rider, pecking the air with his beak, for 
a fee. 

“ A deed of gift, bestowing on Lucy all my property, money, 
slaves, land, everything, so that in case of accident, she will not 
be penniless.” 

“ An excellent idea,” replied the attorney, with a countenance 
of unqualified approval ; “ I will go to my office, and write it 
instantly.” 

“ Make it out to Lucy, the widow of Juan Gordo, of New 
Orleans,” directed the robber. 

“ Aye, I thought so,” remarked Rider, with a merry wink. 

An hour subsequently, the counsellor returned with duplicate 
deeds of gift, which Carlyle signed, and had witnessed in due 
form, and which his attorney hastened off to have recorded. 

On the Monday of the following week, the prisoners were 
placed at the bar for final trial, and never did the countenances 
of supposed confederates in murder, appear more remarkably 
contrasted. Carlyle, at first looked smiling, confident, un- 
daunted ; Curran was pale, resigned, penitent ; while Dublin 
Jack scowled at judge and jurors with the aspect of a despairing 
fiend. 

An immense, noisy multitude, almost amounting to a mob, 
collected in and around the court-house, thirsty as wolves for 


THE JAIL. 


an 

human blood, and only restrained from tearing the captives in 
pieces, from fear of the rangers, composing the guard. 

“ Where is Lucy ?” asked the chief robber, in a most anxious 
whisper, as the case opened without her attendance. 

“ She will come with my wife, when wanted,’^ answered 
Rider ; “it would be unpleasant to expose her to the gaze of 
such brutal spectators longer than necessary.” 

The same proofs were detailed as had been presented before 
the committing magistrate, and the prosecution closed the evi- 
dence for the Republic. 

“ May it please your honor to indulge me a moment, while I 
go after a witness for the defence,” said Rider, bowing. The 
judge signified his assent, and the attorney departed on his mis- 
sion. He remained absent, however, so great a while that the 
court became restless, and showed a strong disposition to 
proceed without him. 

All at once he rushed in with a wild look, exclaiming : 

“ Our witness has been taken suddenly and dangerously ill I” 
At which announcement,, there was a general laugh. 

The case then went on, and was soon submitted to the panel, 
who retired to deliberate upon their verdict. But they could 
hardly, at that hour, be considered as free agents ; for the mob 
gathered around their room, clamoring loudly for the blood of 
their victims, and uttering frightful menaces, provided that 
they should be cheated out of their expected prey. 

At last the jury returned to the hall of justice, and the pris- 
oners, with pallid features gazed into their eyes as they 


378 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


entered, to read if possible their fate, before it should be 
uttered. 

The foreman handed in the verdict of the doomed men, con- 
taining that awful word, which has frozen the very marrow in so 
many brave bones, and sent unknown thousands of haughty 
necks to the halter — “ Guilty I” The sound of itself is enough 
to make the strongest knees quiver. 

Dublin Jack gave a wild yell, like the war-whoop of a savage ; 
Curran burst into bitter tears ; and Carlyle staggered as if he 
had been shot in the heart 1 

The court immediately pronounced the appalling sentence, 
that they should be hung a week from the following Friday. 

The next morning Lucy dressed herself out as a bride, and 
sparkling in all her gold and jewels, with eyes flashing unuttera- 
ble joy and revenge, entered the prison-house where all was 
horror and despair. She paused in the door, and said with a 
merry ringing laugh : 

“ How are you to-day, dearest 

“ Away I hag of unfathomable hell IV roared Carlyle, leaping 
the length of his chain, and falling heavily on the floor. 

“ What I does it want to bite I” exclaimed the cruel woman, 
with her music-murmuring laugh ; “ poor thing I it has tumbled 
down and hurt itself I Come here, darling, and let Lucy kis^ 
the place, and make it well I” 

“ Will nobody take that queen of all the devils away shout- 
ed the robber, with the bloody foam flying from his lurid lips, as 
he still struggled in vain with his fetters to reach her. 


THE JAIL. 


3T9 


** I will go myself,” she answered, with wilder glee ; “ if you 
will honor me with another deed of gift !” 

“ Oh I if there be a God, he will burn you for this, to all 
eternity,” yelled the wretch, biting his own blasphemous 
tongue in a tremendous agony of impotent rage I 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


THE LAST. 

“ Good-bye, sweet creature,” Lucy said or rather sung, for 
every tone of her voice was the richest music, and she turned 
as if to leave the jail. But she came immediately back, saying, 
“ my dear, I forgot something. As you are about to start on 
your travels, I wish to send a message to Juan Gordo. Give 
his ghost my compliments, if you should happen to meet him in 
Fire-island, which is doubtless your port of destination !” 

The miserable man only answered with a groan of despair. 

“ Have you forgotten all that I have done for your interests ?” 
she asked in mocking accents. 

“ Avaunt ! she-fiend 1” he yelled, with the roar of a wild 
beast. 

“ I employed Comanche Ben to exchange your letter to Gen- 
eral Houston for one of my own, representing your real char- 
acter and conduct I” 

“ Eternal destiny I” moaned the robber. 

“ I sent the Indian with a note to your Mary and her lover, 
warning them of your designs against his life, by which means 
he effected his escape,” she continued. 


THE LAST. 


S81 


He uttered a cry, terrible as the howl of a mad wolf. 

“ I induced the Comanche to act as guide for the rangers, 
and lead them to your camp.” 

Again, that howl of rage rent the air. 

“And I lodged the information against you, for the murder 
of Parson Cole and Bob Bennet,” she added, laughing with 
more diabolical merriment than ever. 

“ Oh, how I will tear and torture you, when we two meet in 
hell !” he shouted, smiting his forehead with his chained hands. 

“And for all this delicious revenge I have sold my body to 
the Indian; but I have not yet paid him — ha! ha 1 ha 1 what a 
glorious rival you have I ” she exclaimed with wilder peals of 
appalling mirth. 

And this time Carlyle himself laughed like a maniac. 

“ Farewell, for the last parting,” she said in withering tones 
of irony “ and be sure that you do not forget my compliments 
to Juan Gordo ! ” 

She turned, and met the awful eyes of Comanche Ben gazing, 
with a look of suspicion, upon her countenance, within a few feet 
of the door. He walked off in silence by her side. When they 
had advanced some hundred yards, the Indian attempted to take 
^ her hand, but she repulsed him with an icy shudder, observing ; 
“ you must remember, Ben, that our compact will not be perfect 
until the Captain shall be hung.” 

“But suppose that he should commit suicide, what then?” 
asked the savage, whose doubts of her fidelity increased, as he 
noticed *the horror with which she shrunk from the contact of 
his fingers. 


382 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TAN AHA. 


Why, then I will not wed you, that is all,” she replied with 
a look of disdain and hatred. 

“ How can I prevent the act ? ” inquired the Comanche, now 
certain of her falsehood, and trembling with terrible thoughts. 

“ Watch the jail, and see that none of Carlyle’s friends give 
him any sort of weapon to do the deed,” she urged with her 
usual art. 

And will you then surely marry me ? ” interrogated the 
monster, piercing her very soul with those horrible Indian eyes. 

“ Yes,” she gasped, growing pale beneath his glance. 

“ I will do it,” he muttered seizing her hand, and dealing it a 
kiss that almost amounted to a burning bite. He then went 
back to guard the prison. 

The moment when Lucy departed, Carlyle called one of his 
jailers, and offered eagerly ; “ induce Comanche Ben, to come 
and see me, and I will give you five hundred dollars.” 

The man assented, and half an hour afterwards the Indian 
was brought in. 

Well, Ben,” said his former chief, in accents of friendly com- 
miseration ; “ a woman has fooled you and me both.” 

The savage gazed at him with a bewildered look, unable to 
articulate a single sentence. 

“ And so she promised to marry you I” exclaimed the Cap- 
tain, laughing loud and long j “ why she has made you a 
greater dupe than even myself I She has managed to get all my 
wealth, and now she will be off to Europe, and soon have a 
nobleman for her husband — not you, Ben ; you were a. goose to 
dream of such a thing I ” 


THE LAST. 


• 383 


“ Then I will have her hearths blood I” cried the Indian in 
frightful tones. 

“ Do not fly into a passion, and commit any rash act,” urged 
Carlyle ; go, and request her to wed you outright ; if she 
intends to keep her word, she can do it one time as well as 
another ; and if she refuses, you will then be satisfied, and come 
back to me. I will then tell you how to avenge us both.” 

“ ni hew her in small pieces I I’ll roast her heart, and rend 
it with my teeth !” yelled the Comanche with glaring eyes. 

“You must be careful what you say, or do,” cautioned the 
chief ; “for she has now money to buy friends ; and if you fail 
to follow my advice, she will outwit and escape us yet.” 

The Indian acquiesced in this prudent view of the case, and 
took his leave to seek another interview with the cunning 
woman ; but when he arrived at her boarding-house, they 
informed him that she had already gone away, none knew 
whither, in company with a son of old Jack Miles, the brother 
of Mary’s father. The Comanche sprung instantly upon his 
horse, and galloped off with the speed of the wind. 

In the meanwhile, let us return to other and more interesting 
characters in our story. Young Bolling, with his beautiful 
beloved and Lucy, went on, the night after the battle, with 
General Houston to Shelbyville. Here they unexpectedly met 
with Jack Miles and his six gigantic sons, who having learned 
the situation of their fair, and favorite relative among the rob- 
bers, had shouldered their rifles, and hastened to the rescue. 
Their delight was extreme to find her safe from the danger, min- 
gled however with sad regret for the fate of her unhappy father. 


384 • 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


whom all concluded to be drowned, and as the fact turned out to 
be, as the dead body was discovered the following afternoon. 

The corpse of the colonel was buried with the usual ceremo- 
nies, and the two young lovers, having placed a suitable person 
in charge of the farm, attended by the faithful C^sar, went home 
with their uncle, determined after a suitable lapse of time, to 
celebrate their bridal, in the same neighborhood where they had 
plighted their hearts, by the first burning vows of undying love. 

The re-union of these friends, with the hunter, Sol Tuttle and 
his joyful family, may be far better imagined, than it can possibly 
be described. As soon a? the mutual feelings and congratula- 
tions had been exchanged with the other members of old Jack’s 
household, Bolling and his affianced bride hurried off to see their 
neighbors. 

It was a delicious afternoon in the virgin prime of spring ; and 
their souls harmonized well with heaven’s own stainless blue — 
that divine tint, the sacred one of love, among all the radiant 
colors of the rainbow ; and the angel hope sung in their hearts, 
sweeter songs than any bird of the forest. They passed beneath 
that tree with snowy flowers, which had flung down its bright 
blooms upon their mingled hair, at the moment of their earliest 
kiss, nor is it recorded that they did not repeat this pleasant 
experiment. 

“ Here, y’ are at last 1 ” exclaimed Sol, rushing from the door 
to hail them ; but he broke suddenly down with his intended 
compliments, and burst into tears of uncontrollable rapturous 

joy- 

“ I’d give y’ both my hands,” said the hunter, mastering, 


THE LAST. 


385 


at length his emotion ; “but the brutes roasted ’em so that I 
have to keep ’em bound up.” 

Are they much injured ? ” inquired Bolling anxiously. 

“ Oh, they’ll git well arter a while,” answered the other care- 
lessly ; “I hurt ’em wusser, howsumever, strikin’ the lynchers 
in the fight, than they did in the fire. But step inside and see 
the old ’oman and the little folks.” 

Susy and the children immediately crowded around them with 
boisterous delight, and the beautiful babe, the common idol of the 
household, was duly presented for its share of attention. As 
the two lovers kissed its littl'C smiling lips by turns, Sol remarked, 
“it’s quite well to practise that sort of jewty ; fur ye’ll likely 
have plenty on it to do arter a spell, on yer own account.” 

“ La ! Tuttle, how ken y’ run on so 1” reproved the laughing 
wife, while a pair of other faces turned to a burning crimson. 

“Why, Susy,” persisted the hunter, with the old merry devil 
of mischief in his twinkling black eye ; “ what else are people 
made fur but to marry and hev children ? A cabin without 
children, is wuss nor a field and no corn, or a night without 
stars. To buss babies comes as nateral to young folks, as fodder 
comes to a hungry boss.” 

What farther lofty and philosophical views Sol might have 
predicated as to the final purpose of man’s creation, I am una- 
ble to register ; for at the instant Bolling interposed cunningly 
with the question ; 

“ Where is Jack Randolph ? ” 

“ O, he’s out somewhar, shootin’ at a mark. I’ll warrant,” 
answered the hunter with a look of parental pride ; “ he thinks 

17 


386 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


hisself a man now, since he killed one. I guess as how, Til hev 
to take him down a button hole lower.” 

As he spoke, footsteps sounded at the door, and Dave entered, 
accompanied by the huge form of Mose Miller. 

“ How is this, brother ? ” exclaimed Sol, his black eyes blazing 
with sudden wrath ; “why did y’ bring that cussed feller here 
fur, what tuk us prisoners?” 

“ Becaze, he’s a good critter arter all,” replied Dave, casting 
on the saddened visage of Mose, a look of profound sympathy ; 
“ and I’ve just brung him home, with me to cure his sore hand 
what I smashed orfully. 

“ How?” cried, Sol in amazement. 

“ Why ! y’ see, I cotch him with old Morrow, in the holler 
sycamore,” commenced Dave. 

“ Old Morrow I where is he ? ” shouted Sol with the voice 
of a Lybian lion, and gnashing his teeth with rage. 

“ He’s in tother world now ! ” responded Dave in low solemn 
tones ; “ all scores are settled at last ! ” . 

“ Did y’ shoot him frum the brush ? ” gasped, the hunter, 
almost stunned by the intelligence. 

“ No, I font him a far jewel, with revolvers, and plugged him 
in the forehead as this ere chap can witness,” said Dave earnestly ; 
and he proceeded to detail, at length, all the facts of the. 
case. 

“ I’m glad on it,” affirmed Sol, at the close of the thrilling 
tale ; “becaze I allers hate fur my wurst enemy to be shot, 
without hevin’ a shake fur his life.” 

“Well, brother, ain’t you gnyin to make friends with this 


THE LAST. 


38t 


poor feller ? He wurn’t so much to blame arter all ; as they 
telled him sich bloody lies about you,” observed Dave. 

“ Sartinly,” answered Sol kindly ; “ Mose, you’re welcome to 
stay with us as long as you please, and the longer the better. 
Vine’ll try to doctor up yer sore hand, and if it can’t be cured 
we’ll support ye. Thar will be a couple of us on the sick-fingered 
list, fur my own paws are bad scorched. I’ll swar.” 

“ Oh I you two are so generous, and I don’t deserve it I” 
murmured Miller, weeping tears of gratitude. 

Just then young Jack Randolph entered, crying out eagerly ; 
“ Well, Daddy, I’ve druv the centre a dozen times !” He 
halted an instant, and then rushed to the arms of his smiling 
uncle, but still kept his eyes on Mose with a gleam of ferocious 
revenge. 

Dave narrated briefly to the boy, what had occurred ; and 
then remarked, “now go and shake hands with our new friend 
there and he pointed at Miller. 

“ I wont do it,” replied Jack with a sulky look ; “ onless he’ll 
fight me in a jewel !” 

“ What do y’ mean, rascal ?” ejaculated his father laughing ; 
“ you ort to remember that it ain’t in the old Pocahontas blood 
to be malicious.” 

“ Oh, daddy, I only want him to fight me with paper bullets, 
as me and you does sometimes of a Sunday,” said Jack. 

The hunter dropped his glance, with rather a sheepish look 
upon the floor, at this unexpected revelation of his childish pas- 
times. 

Mose Miller, however, assented to the proposition, and was 


388 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


immediately installed very high, in young Randolph’s favor, 
who soon loved him as a brother. 

As William Bolling and Mary walked home to her uncle’s, 
they paused in the golden light of the setting sun, beneath their 
now favorite tree of the snow white-blossoms, and agreed ii^on 
a day for their union. They also settled that they should invite 
the family of Judge Moore, with several others to witness their 
bridal, and that the itinerant, Hiram Baker, should perform the 
nuptial ceremony. 

“ Can you think of any more guests, whose attendance would 
be desirable, dear Mary asked the youth. 

“Yes, there is one other,” faltered the fair girl, with a blush, 
“ but I fear that you may object.” 

“ Who is it ?” inquired Bolling, with much surprise. 

“ Poor Lucy I” murmured Mary ; “ she was so kind to me in 
my misfortunes ; and indeed we owe our very lives to her, as 
well as our present and future happiness I” 

“ Noble, generous heart 1” exclaimed her lover, with a coun- 
tenance of beaming enthusiasm ; “it shall be as you say. We 
will not prove ourselves ungrateful, however, it may shock the 
whims of public opinion ; for the holy instincts of our nature, 
and the divine dictates of conscience, are safer guides than all 
the cold calculations of prudence and self-interest, although 
illumed by the dryest light of reason.” 

Bolling spent the intervening time, before the day of the 
union, alternately at the houses of the two neighbors. Now he 
would hunt in the green woods, or grassy prairies with Dave, 
and then engage in mock duels with Jack Randolph. Again be 


THE LAST. 


389 


would wander in the sweet isle of* forest, culling flowers wkh his 
beautiful bride and the fair cousin Flora ; and every bloom then 
was full of glory, every leaf flashed like gold ; for the rose-hues 
of happy love lay on the land as celestial light, and added even 
a deeper dye to the boundless blue of heaven. All the universe 
seemed to these young souls, like the fabric of a divine and gor- 
geous dream, and the wide world held nothing but radiant pic- 
tures. He who has never known the immortal magic of such 
blissful hours, has never truly lived. It is the flowering of the 
fruit-tree of real existence — the first music of the JEolian heart- 
strings, stirred by the breath of Grod 1 

At length the wedding day, bright and beautiful as the 
coming of an angel, broke on the eyes of the lovers. Their 
guests had arrived the evening before, and indeed they were so 
numerous, that the humble log cabin could not contain 
them. 

In this emergency, when every person wished to witness the 
ceremony, old Uncle Jack proposed that they should adjourn to 
the neighboring grove, and they all soon gathered beneath the 
dear old tree of the sunny snow flowers ; so that by a singular 
chance, the same queen of the forest which had listened to their 
first burning vows, now saw their fulfilment. 

It was truly a most enchanting scene, to behold these young 
lovers, in all their youth and beauty, standing side by side in the 
open air, with the minister of the Almighty before them, to record 
their mutual oath of eternal tenderness and truth. What bridal 
hall, what holy cathedral, could be for a moment compared to this, 
the great temple of nature ? What pillars of monumental marble 


390 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAEA. 


might equal those Titanian trunks, formed of living fibres, and 
crowned with snowy blossoms of their own creation ? Where 
could you find a magical dome fit to be named in the same breath 
w'ith yonder blue arched temple, bent by the hand of God ? 
Might the wealth of the world itself, though rifled of all its gems 
and gold, furnish another flaming chandelier, like the mighty 
morning sun ? 

Sweet was the murmur of their vows, like the sound of silver- 
singing rain on house-tops, and burning beamed the love-light in 
their eyes, as the sunshine that gilded green leaf and glowing 
flower ; and when their rosy lips trembled to the first chaste kiss, 
according to the dear old custom so common yet in the back- 
woods, a thousand musical birds sung their marriage-hymn, in 
music richer than ever rung from any choir of human voices, 
ever breathed from the most cunning instrument framed by mor-N 
tal art ! 

Lucy was the first to congratulate the happy pair, and she did 
so with blended smiles and tears, such as the sunbeam and 
falling pearl-drops of the summer-cloud, mingle in the rainbow 
of heaven. She looked, at the instant, transcendently beautiful. 
The snowy whiteness of her flowing dress of .muslin presented a 
fine contrast with her long ringlets of raven hair, with the golden, 
gorgeous tint of her complexion, and the dark light of her * 
bewildering black eyes. 

But as she uttered her wishes of joy, at the very moment that 
she clasped the hand of the bride, she suddenly shook with an 
awful tremor, and turned pale as . her own stainless robes ; for 
she saw a couple of demoniac eyes gleaming before her in the 


THE LAST. 


391 


border of the green bushes, and the horrible hand of Comanche 
Ben, beckoning her towards him ! 

She endeavored to approach him, fearing that he would 
become maddened, and proclaim their frightful secret to the 
assembled spectators ; but if her very life, if the salvation of her 
soul had depended on the deed, she could not have moved a mus- 
cle, such a strange terror had possessed her bodily. Her heart 
seemed changed to ice, while the weight of an avalanche lay 
upon her half-frenzied brain. 

The Indian, scowling like a devil, advanced to within three 
feet of the horrified woman, and said, in a voice calm as the air 
before the first clap qf a thunder-storm : 

“ Lucy, I have come to claim my reward. Here is the priest ; 
will you now be my wife 

“ No,” gasped the miserable girl, with features white and rigid 
as those of a marble statue. 

When shall we be wedded?” he hissed, like a furious serpent. 

“ Never I” she cried, in appalling tones. 

** Never ?” he echoed, with an accent that startled the woods 
like the wild howl of a wolf. 

His countenance .was so terrible, so fearfully infernal in its 
wrath, that Lucy almost repented her negation, and faltered : 

“ He is not hung yet I” 

“ And that is the reason, why I have come to demand you as 
my bride now,” replied the Indian, more tranquilly ; “ for the 
captain never will be hung I” 

“ Why ? what do you mean, ugly imp of hell ?” she screamed, 
like a lunatic. 


392 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


“ Last night, the band from Arkansas, overpowered the guard, 
broke open the prison and liberated Carlyle,” answered the sav- 
age, with a fiendish smile of joy. 

“You lie 1” shrieked the wretched woman, rolling her eyes, 
as if in a frenzy. 

“ Here is the proclamation of the President, offering a thou- 
sand dollars, by way of reward for his apprehension,” affirmed 
the Indian, holding out the document. 

She snatched it from his fingers ; saw the name of Sam 
Houston ; devoured the contents with a glance, like lightning ; 
uttered a wild, wailing cry, mournfnl as the last lamentation of 
a condemned soul j leaped high into the air, and fell back upon 
the earth, like a stone I 

They raised the dying woman in their arms j but a torrent of 
warm blood gushed from her mouth and nostrils, and within the 
minute, that fiery spirit, so terrible in its love and hate, passed 
away forever, like a dream I 

“ Dog of an Tojun I” exclaimed Dave Tuttle, seizing the 
Comanche by the throat ; “ has Carlyle raley got outer jail ? 
Tell the truth, or Pll cut it from yer hellish heart I” 

“No,” answered the savage ; “the captain forged the signa- 
ture of the President, in order to kill Lucy, and it has done it, 
I trust I” ' 

“ Away 1 and never show yer ugly face in Texas agin I ” 
roared Dave, flourishing his bowie-knife, and hurling the 
Comanche from him, who disappeared in the thicket, and was 
never more heard of. 

The beautiful bride flew to the body of her fallen friend, 


THE LAST. 


393 


exclaiming wildly ; “ wake up, Lucy dear ; he owns the falsehood ! 
Oh ! arouse ; it is Mary calls you I ” 

Alas ! that dull ear of death shall never more hearken to any 
sound less than the final call of the archangel, and the last loud . 
trump of God I Those dark eyes shall never beam again with 
love or anger, till they look upon the lightnings of the day of 
doom. 

And they buried the once beautiful, but erring clay there, 
beneath that Texan tree of the snowy flowers, the silent witness of 
so much love and hatred, of such infinite joy and amazing sorrow. 
But still the bright birds sing as merrily among its green leaves, 
and the bees hum as busily around the honey-dew of its radiant 
blossoms, as if no wild heart had ever broken under its sunny 
branches. Only the night winds moan a melancholy dirge above 
the head of that pale sleeper, and the large-eyed owls repeat 
again and again, that last lingering wail, the shriek of measure- 
less despair, the death-cry of her pale spirit. 

On the following day, with saddened hearts, the new husband 
and wife, accompanied by their fair cousin Flora, returned to 
their home, the block-house of the late Colonel Miles, and the 
faithful Caesar was immediately installed in the office of genera] 
overseer, a post which he filled with as much profit to his indul- 
gent master, as humanity towards his fellow servants. 

Bolling, indeed, at first, proffered him a paper of manumis- 
sion ; but the African tore it in pieces before his eyes, with the 
disdainful remark ; “ this ere chile has seen enough of boboli- 
tion ! ” 

The two Bartons and their sweethearts, the sisters Ewing, 

17 * 


394 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OF THE TANAHA. 


were married the next evening, after their liberation from the 
clutches of the lynchers, and the widowed mother of the girls 
lives alternately at the dwellings of her children, and still amu- 
ses the young generation with the nightly music of her somnife- 
rous intonations. 

Jonathan Hutson, the moment he was freed from his 
captivity by the Texan Hangers, fled from the unhealthy 
atmosphere of the Tanaha to parts unknown. 

Lawyer Rider yet flourishes in Shelbyville, and has not been 
cured of his old bird-like habit of pecking the air, with his beak 
at the sight or even smell of a fee. He has lately been a mem- 
ber of the Texan legislature where he electrified the natives by a 
furious speech in favor of the next war I 

Parson Johnson recovered from the severe blow, which he 
received in the block-house of Major Morrow, during the fight 
with the rangers, and both himself and his brother Carter, have 
since eschewed the perilous practice of lynching, and prosper well 
in life. 

The fanatic minister Dodson, despairing of the millenium, 
after the defeat of the regulators, turned Millerite, fixed a day 
for the final conflagration of the world, and succeeded in fright- 
ening many people almost out of their senses, by setting the 
prairies on fire, while a fierce norther was blowing ; but it all 
ended in smoke. Subsequently he became a spirit-rapper, yet I 
am sorry to say, that the trumps were usually loudest on the 
counters of groceries, and that the legs of the operator commonly 
reeled more than those of his tables. 

The itinerant, Hiram Baker, wedded the beautiful and accom* 


THE LAST. 


395 


plished Jenny Moore, and mainly through his influence, instead 
of the moral desert, which it once presented, the country now 
may be favorably compared with any section of the western 
world, either as to the orderly conduct of its inhabitants, or their 
observance of all ethical and Christian duties. 

Alfred Moore selected for his life-partner the lovely Flora 
Miles, and changing his wild habits, became the model of a good 
citizen, and successful planter. 

Captain Carlyle was hung pursuant to his awful sentence, and 
exhibited under the gallows a reckless yet lofty daring, which 
astonished every beholder, for all his power of will revived as 
soon as he learned the fearful fate of Lucy. His last shout in 
a voice of thunder, before the appalling leap, was, “ Eternal 
destiny, I defy thee still I ” 

Curran received a full pardon, from President Houston, con- 
trary indeed to his wishes. He afterwards joined the church, 
was ordained a minister, and is at present a missionary in some 
far foreign land. 

A month or two subsequently to the occurrence of the bridal 
of William Bolling and Mary Miles, they paid another visit to 
their relations in the prairie ; and the same day hurried to the 
house of Sol Tuttle, taking Uncle Jack along with them. 

They found young Randolph and Mose Miller, who had now 
nearly recovered the use of his wounded hand, eagerly engaged 
in fighting sham duels in the yard, while the hunter stood laugh- 
ing at the scene from his door. 

“ Well, Pm powerful glad to see y' both,” cried Sol, wringing 
the fingers of the new husband and wife with a will, that almost 


396 


RANGERS AND REGULATORS OP THE TANAHA. 


caused Mary to scream with the pain of the griping pressure ; 
“ walk in and kiss the baby.” 

As soon as the kindly greetings ended, Bolling remarked, 
with an affected solemnity of voice and manner ; “ Mr. Tuttle, 
you owe ray present visit to business rather than pleasure. I 
have come out to take a look at ray land.” 

“You have bought Judge Moore’s big parrary track then I 
suppose,” suggested Sol. 

“Yes, thirty-three leagues,” answered the other; “and I 
thought, perhaps, that I might sell you a piece of it.” 

“ Not onless you’d hev payment in deerskins, at a monstrous 
high valeation too ; fur you ort to know that I’m not able to 
buy enough to bury me,” said the hunter with a gloomy and 
somewhat displeased air. 

“ But I will credit you,” insisted Bolling. 

“ No, I wish I may be turned to a toad if y’ do,” retorted Sol 
warmly ; “ fur I won’t promise what I can’t pay, that’s short 
metre. None of my family ever owned the sile whar they 
hunted ; becaze, though we were of the ginuine Pocahontas blood, 
I guess we take arter the old injun grandmother, while the 
balance on ye are the grit of the white great grandaddy. But, 
howsumever money won’t stick to our paws, no more nor rain on 
a goose’s back. 

“Well, Sol, I was only joking,” observed Bolling with a 
smile ; “ I cannot sell you the homestead, for it is yours already. 
Here is a recorded deed to a mile square around your house ; 
and here is another of the same sort for Uncle Jack and ha 
presented the documents to their true proprietors. 


THE LAST. 


397 


The hunter gazed on the undeniable evidence of his new acqui- 
sition as a real land owner of the country, at first with a stupid 
look, as if unable to believe his eyes, and then seizing the hand 
of his benefactor, he- essayed to express his gratitude ; but the 
emotion proved too mighty for his utterance. His bosom 
swelled, his lip quivered, and bursting into tears he left the 
room. He returned, however, in a few minutes, with the old 
merry twinkle in his eyes, and remarked ; “ Mr. Bolling, I guess 
ye’ll think me a fool, and you’d be about right fur that matter, 
but when my heart gits high here in my throat, cuss me, if my 
tongue don’t allers hang fire. Howsumever, y’ know well 
enough my feelins.” 


THE END. 



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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: 



1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Twp., PA 1 6066 , 

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